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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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(Frankfurter Allgemeine) A senior Church leader of Syrian Christians holds the German asylum offer responsible for the fact that so many people are leaving his country. By so doing, he reveals himself as a supporter of the Assad regime.
Syrian Patriarch Gregorios III Laham has expressed reservations about Germany’s great receptivity. He was "glad about the reception, but sad about the invitation," the head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church said on Wednesday in Frankfurt. The willingness of the Federal Government to grant protection to war refugees from Syria was "understood there to mean that Germany wanted to have a certain number of people."
Certainly fear is a motive for flight, but this fear was deliberately exacerbated by "Islamic State," said the clergyman. Other reasons for the exodus from Syria were "hope for a better life and a better future" as well as desire for "adventure," said Gregorios III. He likened the exodus to an "epidemic." The patriarch, who resides in Damascus, was visiting Frankfurt on the occasion of the consecration of the Byzantine chapel at the Jesuit College of St. George.
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CWN - Hundreds of Syrian Christian fighters have gathered to defend Sadad, a Christian town of 3,500 between Homs and Damascus, as forces of the Islamic State advance.
Newsweek reported that Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, the head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, visited Sadad in order to encourage the town’s defenders.
“It is under assault," the patriarch said. “The young people in Sadad, with the help of some armed groups, were able to fight back and push IS back to where they started.”
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CWN - Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II has stated his support for Russian military actions in Syria, and urged the US and its allies to stop funding rebel groups.
The Orthodox prelate, who is in Moscow this week to meet with both Russian Orthodox officials and government leaders, said that the continued fighting in Syria is driving Christians out of the country and providing opportunities for terrorist advances. About 30% of the country’s Christian population has fled, he said. “They are fleeing from terrorism,” he added.
"We believe that Russia’s intervention has brought hope to all the Syrian people,” Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem said. He said that Russia is playing the part of peacemaker, while the US and other European countries are funding extremists groups and thereby continuing the bloodshed.
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CWN - The Islamic State has freed an additional 37 Christians kidnapped in northeastern Syria in February.
The jihadist group, which now controls half of Syria and a quarter of Iraq, previously freed 51 of the 215 villagers it had kidnapped, according to a CNN report.
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CWN - The bishops of the Maronite Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, have spoken out against proposals to divide Syria’s territory along sectarian lines.
Three of Syria’s 18 dioceses and other ecclesiastical jurisdictions are Maronite.
Citing the example of religious coexistence within Lebanon, the Maronite bishops said on November 5 that “the rumors about the possibility of a new map of Syria are not positive for the future of peace in the region,” according to a report from the Fides news agency.
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CWN - The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has published the text of a recent lecture on creation care and ecological justice.
“We are convinced that we must make the strongest possible call for change and justice at the Climate Conference in Paris next December,” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said at the Oxford Union on November 4. “This is our ethical and honorable obligation; this is our word of promise and hope to the entire world.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch, who holds a primacy of honor in Eastern Orthodoxy, added:
It is not too late to act, but we cannot afford to wait; we certainly cannot afford not to act. We all agree on the necessity to protect our planet’s natural resources, which are neither limitless nor negotiable. We are all in this together. People of faith must practice what they preach; citizens of the world must clearly voice their opinion; and political leaders must act urgently and decisively.