IRAQ - Inhabitants of Qaraqosh assess damage after IS occupation “I don’t understand how people can harm each other so much,” sighs security guard Louis Petrus. Today, Louis has returned to his hometown for the first time: the Christian city of Qaraqosh, near Mosul, which he had to flee on 6 [...]
SYRIA - Aleppo sporadic fighting still going on despite ceasefire Aleppo is still far from peaceful after its costly liberation: despite the agreed ceasefire between Russia, Iran, Turkey and Syria, sporadic gunfire continues in the beleaguered city. The director of the German branch of the Catholic charity " Aid to the [...]
INDIA - The Church in India a shining light for all to see India is a country of more than 1.2 billion people, with Christians accounting for only some 3 percent of the population, including close to 19 million Catholics. Despite its relatively small size, the Indian Church has a disproportionate [...]
Is political correctness stopping Governments helping Middle East Christians? A long term reluctance to intervene by governments of the US, EU and other western powers has made the plight of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria even worse. The latest Report produced by an alliance of 15 charities [...]
HOLY LAND“We must never become accustomed to the Occupation” Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton, chair of the Holy Land Co-ordination, has issued a joint statement about the West Bank Occupation with the other 11 bishops from Europe, North America and South Africa who make up the Co-0rdination. The statement marked the [...]
Pope Francis meets Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas Last week Pope Frances met with Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, at the Vatican. The cordial discussion evoked the existing good relations between the Holy See and Palestine, “sealed by the Global Agreement of 2015, which regards essential aspects of the life and activity of [...]
SCOTLAND – Eggs and insults hurled at Catholic parishioners As churchgoers were leaving evening Mass at St John and St Columba's Church in Rosyth, 14 miles northwest of Edinburgh, a gang of youths threw raw eggs and hurled “anti-Catholic abuse” at Fr. Kevin Dow and his parishioners. Ten children aged about [...]
GREECE - World’s oldest refugee: Iraqi woman aged 116 escapes from IS An Iraqi grandmother aged 116 years who escaped from IS is the oldest refugee in Greece – and possibly the world!Zafir, born on 1 July 1910, is older than the Iraqi state itself. At that time the Ottoman Empire still [...]
Nepal - Holy Cross Sisters' mission for poor remote villages is thriving It is almost 10 years now since the sisters of the congregation of the Daughters of the Holy Cross first began their apostolate in East Nepal. They are helping to give schooling to children from the poorest families, and at [...]
INDIA - Two priests give an account of religious persecution against Christians Two priests from the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in Orissa spoke about their experiences of religious persecution at a conference on religious persecution organised by Aid to the Church in Need. Fr Mrutyunjaya and Fr Santosh Kumar described the difficult reality [...]