Syria’s Christians have fallen “into crisis and fear,” according to Archbishop Jacques Mourad – but he’s no stranger to adversity and is determined to see that priests will be there to minister to their spiritual needs.
Kidnapped in 2015 by ISIS when he was still a monk, Syriac Catholic Archbishop Jacques endured five years of captivity during which he was tortured to make him renounce Jesus. He never did. Every part of his Archdiocese of Homs, Hama, and Nabk suffered destruction during Syria’s Civil War, with some neighbourhoods having 80 per cent of their houses destroyed. In Homs itself, churches were targeted as part of the ongoing bombardment.
Father Jacques Mourad (Syria) during the night of witnesses in Barcelona giving his testimony of faith. (November 2017)
In the last couple of years, a church in Hama was riddled with gunfire, and the cemetery in the nearby Christian town of Mhareh was vandalised. In troubled times, the faithful need priests – but priests need to feed themselves and pay their bills, which is a challenge in a country where 90 per cent live in poverty.
Archbishop Jacques asked for Mass stipends to support him and the 14 priests in his archdiocese ministering to the faithful. How could we refuse to help? He said: “Thank you for your constant support for our Church and for our families who remained in the country, but I write now to thank you for the Mass stipends for our priests. These Mass stipends are their primary source of livelihood.
“I wish to convey our thanks, appreciation and prayers for ACN and your benefactors. May goodness, security and peace prevail in our homeland and the whole world.”
