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Last Updated: 29 July 2015

risu.org.ua - President Petro Poroshenko met with representatives of Archbishop of Constantinople–New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who came to Ukraine to participate in the celebration of the Day of Christianization of Kievan Rus’ – Ukraine and commemoration of the 1000th anniversary of the repose of Grand Prince of Kyiv Volodymyr the Great.

The President welcomed leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of USA and Canada Metropolitan Yurij (Kalistchuk), Metropolitan Antony (Scharba), Bishop Daniel (Zelinsky) and UOC representative Danyl (Bilak) in Ukraine.

“The Prayer of Ecumenical Patriarch and his unshakable position in defense of peace and unity of Ukraine helps us heal the wounds caused by Russian aggression and terrorism,” Petro Poroshenko said.

The Head of State noted that Ukraine is going through difficult and crucial times. Each day is an example of great service to the Motherland by the Ukrainian militaries in Donbas and the entire Ukrainian nation, which is doing everything possible to unite and overcome challenges, as stated by Petro Poroshenko. “Ukrainian people pray for the unity to be achieved in church life. All Ukrainians strive for the creation of local Ukrainian church. It is a dream that will help Ukraine become united and preserve principles and traditions,” the President emphasized.

In their turn, representatives of Ecumenical Patriarch noted that it is a great honor for them to take part in today’s events. “The Patriarch asked two Metropolitans from Canada and USA to come to Ukraine and celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the repose of Grand Prince of Kyiv Volodymyr the Great with the people of Ukraine,” Metropolitan Yurij said. He noted that war in Donbas facilitated the unity of the Ukrainian nation. The representatives of Ecumenical Patriarch are hopeful that the dialogue on the unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches will be continued.

http://risu.org.ua/en/index/all_news/state/national_religious_question/60683/

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Last Updated: 29 July 2015

CWN - Speaking recently in Boston, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch lamented the suffering of the Middle East's Christians and pleaded for peace.

"We have priests, monks, nuns, people and martyrs - their only crime is that they hold the entity of Christianity," said Patriarch John X. "We have brothers who were forced to [e]migrate, others obliged to pay tributes. We have people carrying their lives over their hands whilst living within the rockets range, which did not spare a school nor civilians, nor military people in Damascus and all around Syria."

"Protecting this land happens through looking with humanitarian eye to all what is happening, not in the eye of interests," he added. "From here, from this place, I raise my voice east and west and I say to all the world: let us live, let our people live, and do not make our land a circuit of conflicts. What is happening in our land is a blind terrorism that we are not used to."

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Last Updated: 27 July 2015

CWN - The Synod of Bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church has elected Bishop Gregory Ghabroyan, 80, as the 20th Armenian Catholic Paticarch of Cilicia.

The prelate, now known as Gregory Petros XX Ghabroyan, succeeds Nerses Petros XIX Tarmouni, who died on June 25.

The new patriarch was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1934 and studied in Lebanon and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. In 1959, he was ordained a priest of the Patriarchal Congregation of Bzommar, an Armenian Catholic religious institute.

Ordained to the episcopate in 1977, he ministered to Armenian Catholics in France until his retirement in 2013, first as apostolic exarch and then as head of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Paris, which was established in 1986.

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Last Updated: 27 July 2015

CWN - In an interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, reiterated Pope Francis's 'very deep' concern for the Church in Iraq.

Cardinal Filoni, the author of a new book on the history of the Church in Iraq, once served as apostolic nuncio in Iraq and has twice been sent by Pope Francis as a special envoy there.

The Pontiff is concerned, Cardinal Filoni said, "first of all because at the moment, Christians along with other small minorities are the poor ones in the situation because they have had to leave everything behind, not just their homes but everything they owned, remaining with nothing but the shirt they had on their backs."

"The Pope has played an important role – and everyone recognizes this – in focusing international attention on the war" and on persecuted Christians, he added.

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Last Updated: 27 July 2015

CWN - The priest who directs the Dominican order's Peace Center in Lahore said that 130 Christians are now facing blasphemy charges in Pakistan.

"According to my estimate, there are 130 Christians whose trials are proceeding," Father James Channan told Aid to the Church in Need. "But people will be surprised to learn that there are about 950 Muslims currently held under the law. The law is far more enacted against Muslims, and very often it is a tool to settle business disputes or personal vendettas."

"But there is a big difference between accusations of Muslims and Christians: if one Muslim is accused, just one Muslim is accused," he continued. "But in the case of a Christian being accused, an entire community, an entire neighborhood is accused. And in several cases the entire Christian village or a Christian neighborhood has been burned to ashes."

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Last Updated: 27 July 2015

CWN - Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako told a Vatican Radio audience that he continues to hope for a visit by Pope Francis to Iraq.

"We need his presence among us, so that he can give us so much strength, so much hope, not only for Christians but for everyone," said the Iraqi prelate. He has issued several public requests for a papal visit, saying that the Pontiff's security would be assured while he was in Iraq.