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Last Updated: 17 September 2015

CWN - The Christian population of Aleppo, Syria, has been cut by two-thirds in the past five years, and the city's Catholic bishop admits "a real fear that our community might disappear altogether."

Bishop Antoine Audo, speaking to reporters in Rome, said that about 100,000 Christians have left Aleppo, out of a pre-war population of 150,000. Today, he reported, "One part of the city is controlled by the government, while the rest is in the hands of fundamentalist groups who are constantly attacking the area controlled by the Syrian army-- and that's where the majority of Christians live."

Aleppo is especially vulnerable, the bishop said, because it is situated near Turkey: a country that, he charged, "is continuing to arm and welcome the fundamentalists."

Commenting on the mass exodus of refugees from Syria, Bishop Audo said that the country's people are losing hope. The refugees are mainly young men, he said, because they "fear being called up for military service and don't want to take part in a senseless war."

Bishop Audo said that Christians are "determined to stay on in Syria." But the situation is grim, he said, because "there seems to be a desire on the part of the international community to see the war continue."

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Last Updated: 17 September 2015

CWN - The suffering of the people in Syria and Iraq is among “the most overwhelming human tragedies of recent decades,” Pope Francis said at a September 17 audience.

In an address to a conference organized by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, bringing together representatives of Catholic charitable groups working in the Middle East, the Pope decried the continued bloodshed in Syria and Iraq. He said that “the international community seems unable to find adequate solutions while the arms dealers continue to achieve their interests.”

Because of worldwide media coverage, the Pope remarked, the “atrocities and unspeakable human rights violations which characterize these conflicts are transmitted live.” Consequently, he added: “No one can pretend not to know!”

Without specifically naming the Islamic State, the Pope said that “the very legitimacy of the presence of Christians and other religious minorities is denied in the name of a violent fundamentalism claiming to be based on religion.” He expressed his horror at the suffering endured by persecuted Christians, and his concern that the ancient Christian presence in those lands is now jeopardized.

At a separate public audience on the same day, the Pope revealed that he carries the cross of a priest who was killed in Iraq. Speaking to young religious, the Holy Father disclosed that he was recently given a small cross “that a priest held in his hand as he was beheaded for his refused to deny Jesus.” Gesturing toward his chest, the Pope said: “I carry this cross with me here.”

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Last Updated: 17 September 2015

CWN - Speaking at a diocesan conference in Sessa Aurunca, Italy, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops emphasized that the Church must “include” rather than “exclude.”

In his September 15 address, which was summarized in a brief article in L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri said that “the crisis of the family is due also to the hiddenness of the Church,” which is called to “listen,” “accompany,” and “include,” rather than “exclude,” so that all may experience the “incomparable beauty of matrimony.”

Three serious challenges that foster an “anti-family” mentality, he continued, are “individualism and emotional fragility,” “lack of faith,” and “economic insecurity and social exclusion.”

The upcoming Synod on the family, he said, is called to give “authoritative and shared” answers to these challenges as the Church rediscovers “the art of accompaniment.”

“Without renouncing the proclamation, according to the truth of Christian doctrine, of matrimony, one, faithful, and indissoluble,” the Church must “discern among diverse situations,” “include” rather than “exclude,” and show herself a “mother with arms open to all,” he said.

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Last Updated: 15 September 2015

The head of the Syriac Catholic Church said that the support of Syrian rebels by the United States, Great Britain, and France was tantamount to “fomenting the violence” in Syria “under the pretext of a kind of Arab Spring,” Canadian Catholic News reported.

Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan, who was making a pastoral visit to Ottawa, charged that the Western view of “modernized, civilized rebels” opposing the Assad regime was a “fantasy.”

Paraphrasing the Patriarch’s remarks, the report continued:

These rebels were supplied with arms, he said. Thus, it is up to the West to take measures to stop Daesh (the Islamic State or ISIS). They must provide soldiers on the ground to stop the fighting. Airstrikes are not enough, he said, because Daesh fighters mingle with civilians, making the risk too great.

Additional sources for this story

• Syriac Catholic Patriarch visits Ottawa (CCN)

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Last Updated: 15 September 2015

CWN - In a recent talk in California, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop of Paris discussed the resurgence of the Church in Ukraine over the past 25 years.

“When our Church came out of the underground in 1990, our Church had been decimated by decades of intense Soviet persecution,” said Bishop Borys Gudziak. “The ranks of our clergy had been reduced to only 300, mostly elderly priests with an average age of 75.” 

“Today, our Church in Ukraine, despite war and severe economic pressures, has grown dramatically, with more than 3,000 priests with an average age of 38,” he continued. “Our seminaries are producing hundreds of new priests every year, and vocations are strong.”