News

Details

Last Updated: 20 October 2015

CWN - Latin-rite Catholic Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem has said that the Israeli security wall “disfigures the face of the Holy City.”

The Patriarch said that the wall contradicts the notion—embraced by Israel in the past—that Jerusalem is an indivisible city. The wall also interferes with free access to the city’s shrines, he said.

“If this policy of separation continues,” Archbishop Twal said, “each person will move to Jerusalem bringing with him his own wall, his barrier that separates him from the others.”

Details

Last Updated: 20 October 2015

CWN - The Islamic State has released at least 50 Christians who were seized in August in Qaryatayn, Syria, and have been held captive since that time, the Fides news service reports.

The captives were released on October 11, and returned to an area under the control of the Syrian government. Their release came shortly after the release of Father Jacques Murad, who had been trying to negotiate the release of more than 200 people captured by the Islamic State during offensive drives this year. 

Details

Last Updated: 20 October 2015

CWN - The Vatican has released summaries of the messages from “fraternal delegates” of Orthodox and Protestant denominations to the Synod of Bishops. Among them:

• Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Iosif reminded the synod: “The divine greatness of marriage resides in the fact that in marriage we find a living representation of the union of the Word with human nature.”
• Anglican Bishop Timothy Thornton gave his opinion that the Synod’s working document is “too focused on the negative aspects of family life,” and said that the Synod message should emphasize how much there is to celebrate in families.
• Estonian Orthodox Metropolitan Stephanos, speaking on new government policies regarding the recognition of marriage, said: “The law confirms, without doubt, a new social situation but for the Church, the sacrament of marriage, it is hoped, is not revealed as a mere institution but first and foremost, it is hoped, as a mystery of life.”
• Coptic Orthodox Metropolitan Bishoy said that regarding pastoral care for people with same-sex attraction, the Church should “explain in a tender, tolerant and convincing way that homosexuality is a great sin forbidden by God according to the Holy Scriptures.”
• Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley of the Baptist World Alliance observed that “There is no perfect family and no perfect marriage.” He said that Baptists focus on Jesus, “who invites sinners to sit at his table.”
• Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yostinos Boulos Safar said that the Church centers on the Eucharist, which has healing power, and “should not be withheld as part of the norms of punishment.”
• Tim Macquiban, who directs the Methodist Ecumenical Office in Rome, said that the Synod had spoken primarily of “one form of family, of parents and children.” He suggested that single people, childless couples, and unmarried partners “can easily feel excluded.”

Details

Last Updated: 15 October 2015

CWN- A Coptic Orthodox bishop has dedicated a church to the 21 Christians who were beheaded in Libya in February by members of the Islamic State.

Shortly after the murders, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church declared that the slain Christians would be venerated as martyrs.

“We are extremely proud of our martyrs,” said Bishop Paphnutius of Samalut, the home diocese of most of the slain Christians.

“Although they were forced to kneel before their executioners, they were the stronger,” he added, according to Aid to the Church in Need. “Their murderers were the weaker, despite their weapons. Why would they have concealed their faces otherwise? It could only have been because they were afraid. Our sons by contrast were very strong and called on our Lord until their very last breath.”

Details

Last Updated: 15 October 2015

CWN - Aid to the Church in Need has published a report on the persecution of Christians in 22 nations.

The report found that the level of persecution is “extreme,” “extreme/high,” or “high” in 18 countries.

“The Church’s survival in parts of Africa and the Middle East [is] threatened by religiously motivated ethnic cleansing by extremist Islamist groups,” the report stated. “The Church is being driven out of its ancient biblical heartland thanks to a massive exodus - Christianity is on course to disappear from Iraq potentially within five years.”

“Totalitarian regimes such as those in China and North Korea have put Christians under pressure due to the perception that Christianity is linked to the West, seen as corrupt and exploitative by Communist states,” the report added.

Details

Last Updated: 15 October 2015

CWN - A Syrian archbishop who has been heavily critical of US military involvement in Syria has now decried the notion that Russia is engaged in a “holy war” against the Islamic State.

Reflecting on statements by Russian Orthodox officials who supported their country’s military engagement, Archbishop Jacques Hindo of Hassake-Nisibis said that references to a “holy war” were “a foolish way to define what is going on in Syria.”

The archbishop told the Fides news agency that the notion of a “holy war” is a dangerous one, being put forward by clerics “who do not live in the Middle East.” He warned against ideological exploitation of the suffering endured by Christians in the region.

Pointing out that Islamic extremists regularly claim that they are engaged in a “holy war” of their own, Archbishop Hindo said: “With similar expressions, we confirm their bloody ideology: if indeed there is an ongoing Holy War, they can better justify every wickedness also against the Christians here.”