Addressing this is essential for maintaining moral credibility, supporting interfaith dialogue, and continuing the path set by Nostra Aetate.

While global attention was focused on the U.S. elections, people continued to die in the most dangerous, horrific war that the Middle East has seen since 1948.

Considering the United States as the center of the issue overlooks the enormity of what is happening to the east of the Mediterranean and the widespread, culpable indifference.

October 7, 2023, is a caesura and periodising date in our history.

There is no possible moral justification for what Hamas did on that day against Israel, a brutal reflection of its appalling commitment to destroying Israel and murdering Jews.

But while Europe and the Western world in general have a well-rehearsed response to antisemitism, their response to what happened after October 7 has been far more problematic.

Either Europe and the Western world do not realize the extent of what is happening to the Palestinian people, or they are in a state of moral and political denial. Or worse.

The behavior of the Israeli government and armed forces is beyond what is morally acceptable and legally permissible.

Israel continues to bomb places that can hardly be said to be a military target or where the proportion between military targets and civilian "collateral damage" goes beyond any understanding of morality and legality.

Civilian victims have become victims twice, thanks to widespread mistrust—or international ignorance—of the news in wartime propaganda. Yet, the reality of what is happening is undeniable.

Navigating religious and political tensions

Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself, and it's hard to fathom what this means from the quiet of the American suburbia where I write this.

However, looking back on it from the start, Israel's action in Gaza cannot be seen solely as a response to October 7.

The ethnic supremacist undertones of Netanyahu and his collaborators had been present long before October 7.

The narrative on the role of religions in world affairs is dominated by extremist positions — in Islam, Judaism, Christianity, not to mention Hinduism and more — that are too often considered the only true ones.

Christians and Catholics, in particular, must walk a very fine line.

There is a significant difference between clearly condemning the Israeli government's specific policies and the violent sentiments held by some Christians and Catholics toward the entire State of Israel, which often extends—implicitly or explicitly—to a broad animosity toward all Jewish people.

Needless to say, this goes back for millennia.

It is striking — and terrifying — to see how some radical-progressive Catholics went from Philo-Semitism in the late 20th century to the risk of seemingly flirting, sometimes unknowingly, with anti-Judaism and antisemitism today.

The pro-Israeli stance of many governments cannot hide the anti-Israeli aversion and sometimes the open antisemitism, especially among those who have not yet renounced political activism.

On the other hand, there is a moral unresponsiveness, even among the most aware and least naïve who acknowledge and defend Catholic-Jewish dialogue as one of the most important fruits of Vatican II and the post-Vatican II period.

Their fear that critique of the State of Israel could morph into new forms of anti-Judaism and antisemitism is real, but no excuse to sit on the sidelines as things progressively escalate.

Historically, the political, cultural, and ecclesiastical elites of countries important for Catholicism, such as France and Italy, have had a different and more intimate relationship with both Muslims and Christians in the Middle East and the Arab world compared to Britain and the United States.

In the last few years, the Catholic perception of the Middle East has been shaped more by the Anglosphere, leading to an undeclared (and occasionally declared) Catholic Zionism.

That often overlooks the heavy toll paid by innocent victims—particularly Muslims, but also Christians and Jews. They are simply "collateral damage."

A call for moral clarity

Now is the time for a moral denunciation of what is happening in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. This is the work of far more than the Holy See.

In fact, it is not clear how much the Holy See can do. Catholics can act in ways the Vatican and the pope cannot.

Liberal-progressive Catholics, especially, are under an obligation to give more explanations than conservative or traditionalist Catholics.

University professors at Catholic universities cannot teach about Dorothy Day, the Berrigan brothers, liberation theology, and not teach about the Middle East today.

They cannot teach how to do theology inter-religiously without talking about what is happening in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

It is morally impossible to condemn "Christian nationalism" without considering the risks of a theocratic turn in the relations between religion and politics in the State of Israel.

This war is changing interreligious relations in ways that will continue for decades, even for the rest of our lives.

The fact that this is complicated is no excuse and never has been for Catholic understandings of moral culpability.

Forgetting the victims has become one of the most typical moves today—and perhaps the most subtle form of contempt.

The deafening silence of Catholics on this topic carries profound long-term consequences for the relations between the Church and Islam that will endure far longer than the effects of the vote of Arab-American voters in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

To the historical guilt of the European and Western Churches for the Holocaust is now added the guilt toward the Middle East.

Such a burden cannot be alleviated by the clear and pressing need to respond always and everywhere to the return of antisemitism.

The question for Catholics is how to raise their voices so as not to leave the victims of the ongoing war in oblivion. It is simply wrong to expect that only the pope and the Vatican should do it.

Central to the Francis papacy has been a push for a new vision of Global Catholicism. What is happening in the Middle East could turn it into a graveyard of this vision for Global Catholicism, along with many other dreams and lives.

The institutional silence or hesitation of Church leaders and Catholic authorities, both clergy and lay, regarding Gaza and Lebanon in Europe and the broader West aligns with the prevailing interpretation in the Anglosphere and translates into a strong push for the re-Westernization of Catholicism.

The turn towards a more global Church, requiring a break from the Anglosphere and attention to a diverse and local-global dialogical Catholic self-understanding, cannot be reduced to something like a "diversity, equity, and inclusion" corporate programme.

Global Catholicism is not about recruiting more diverse personnel. It is about diverse understandings, ones that truly reflect global realities and not simply power plays or historical amnesia.

This is not the time for an ersatz orientalist nostalgia for the status of Christians under the Ottoman Empire or in the post-World War I "mandate system."

As Christians and Catholics, we cannot ignore or overlook what is happening in the Middle East, especially the catastrophe facing the Palestinian people.

Of course, the caution of Catholics in taking a stand on the conflict in the Middle East must be understood in light of their role in the history of antisemitism up to the Holocaust.

Within the Western world, Christians carry a heavy responsibility. The most conscientious quarters know that antisemitism is alive and well and must be fought tooth and nail.

But keeping the legacy of Nostra Aetate and continuing that path will be much more difficult, or impossible, should Catholic voices fail to recognise that the post-October 7 war in the Middle East is one of the signs of our times that we need to read in light of the Gospel.

• First published in La Croix
• Massimo Faggioli is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, columnist for La Croix International, and contributing writer to Commonweal.

Pope Francis marked the anniversary of the beginning of the war in Israel after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack by calling a day of prayer and fasting for peace.

On October 6, Francis presided over a rosary for peace, without mentioning that the anniversary coincides with another significant event in the history of inter-religious relations.

During the Counter-Reformation, popes gave the rosary a role in explaining the triumph of Christians in the Holy League over the superior Ottoman forces at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, an event still evoked today by neo-traditionalists opposing Islam.

In 1572, Pius V established the feast of Our Lady of Victories on October 7 to give thanks for the victory, and in 1573, Gregory XIII dedicated the day to the Virgin of the Rosary, merging her iconography with that of the Virgin of Victory.

There was much that Pope Francis could not mention.

And there was something that he should not have mentioned in his "Letter to Catholics in the Middle East," for example, the passage from the Gospel of John 8:44, which some consider the single most antisemitic line in the New Testament.

This is just one example of the disastrous effects of the events of October 7, 2023, and their aftermath on relations between Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

Globalisation and the future of Catholicism

The war also impacts church politics. The war in the Middle East since October 2023 has amplified the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

It has brought to the forefront three Italian cardinals on the international stage: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna and Francis' special envoy for peace in Ukraine; and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Whatever happens between now and the next conclave, there is an Italianisation of the leading figures in the Catholic Church dealing with these major international crises.

Between the end of the Middle Ages and the early modern age, the Italianisation of the papacy and the Roman Curia was a response to the challenges brought to the church by the European powers and their support for schismatic demands.

We will see how the cardinals in the next conclave will respond to the challenges coming from the 21st-century world disorder.

"Having more cardinals from "the peripheries" means a college of cardinals more representative of the global Church, but also means a much higher number of cardinals physically distant from Rome and therefore potentially less able to advise the pope and the Curia."

The second effect is on the institutional responses of the Catholic Church and the Vatican in this age of geopolitical uncertainties. The globalisation of Catholicism means also a de-Europeanisation of the historical and religious narratives on the character and identity of the Church.

There have been previous phases of internationalization of the leadership of the Church in the College of Cardinals, especially since the 19th century, but today's diversification takes place in a situation Church in the Americas, especially in the United States.

This is visible in the list of the 21 new cardinals that Pope Francis will create in his tenth consistory of December 8.

This list sends strong signals to the countries that influence the destinies of the world: for example, creating as a cardinal Belgian missionary Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFM Cap., archbishop of Tehran-Ispahan in Iran — a clear gesture to the United States and Israel at this time of serious risk of all-out war between Iran and an Israel supported by the United States.

But this internationalisation of the College of Cardinals also means the risk of overstretching the global institutional capacity of Catholicism.

Having more cardinals from "the peripheries" means a college of cardinals more representative of the global church, but also means a much higher number of cardinals physically distant from Rome and, therefore, potentially less able to advise the Pope and the Curia.

The strain on inter-religious relations

The third, most delicate, and disastrous series of effects concerns the future of the relations between the Catholic Church, Judaism and Islam.

This war in the Middle East broke out during the pontificate of Pope Francis, who is trying to do for the relations between the Church and Islam what John Paul II did for the relations with Judaism.

But now Catholicism must face the reality that institutionalised Christianity has been replaced as a source of antisemitism by some radical groups within Islam.

On the other side, there are Israel's political and constitutional trajectories under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In many ways, the State of Israel now faces the challenge of developing a modernity that reconciles religion and politics, a challenge that became more evident after the Holy See and Israel established full diplomatic relations in 1993.

Netanyahu's response to October 7 and his framing of relations between the Jewish state and Judaism are cementing a political theology of enmity between Jews and Muslims.

This challenges the post-Vatican II project of dialogue between the three Abrahamic religions as fundamental for peace-building, not only in the Middle East but as a paradigm for a new world order.

Vatican II set Catholic-Jewish dialogue in the context of European history, but that context is no longer the dominating working frame for interreligious relations, and not even for Jewish-Catholic relations.

The issue is not only that the moral lessons of World War II are now being sidelined or sometimes disregarded in secular post-colonial and de-colonial discourse.

In inter-religious dialogue, Jews and Muslims strongly committed to dialogue with the Catholic Church now feel that there is a growing set of issues that are not being acknowledged and understood in Rome.

This is paradoxically one of the fruits of the de-Europeanisation of the Vatican and global Catholicism. Vatican II set Catholic-Jewish dialogue in the context of European history, but that context is no longer the dominating working frame for inter-religious relations and not even for Jewish-Catholic relations.

On the other hand, the suffering of Palestinians and Christians in Gaza and Lebanon serves as yet another reminder of the challenges to fostering a culture of peace in today's high-tech warfare, where so-called pinpoint precision often accompanies indiscriminate bombings, leading to more innocent victims.

It also casts a dark shadow on the viability of the theology of liberation in the face of 21st-century state power and in the midst of wars and occupations where religion is manipulated into a "clash of civilizations."

The war unleashed by the events of October 7, 2023 risks squandering the journey made since the Second Vatican Council.

These events are happening during a time of the minimisation, in militant Catholic circles, of the theology of inter-religious dialogue within a Catholic Church that is more global but also far removed from Vatican II after 60 years.

After the conciliar declaration Nostra Aetate and especially after John Paul II, it was a common assumption that fighting antisemitism was an entry-level requirement for Catholics.

Sadly, this is no longer always true. It is not only the theology of new Catholic influencers but a broader process of de-theologisation and deculturation that reveals the marginalisation of Vatican II and its key documents on inter-religious relations, including Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae on religious liberty.

Impact of the war on the Catholic Church

One enormous problem is posed by radical traditionalist Catholic groups, but there are also the progressive Catholics who think that Vatican II is passé, the last gasp of a Church not inclusive enough, too Catholic to be modern.

There are some parallels between today's leftist progressivism and the blindness of socialists, communists, and radicals to antisemitism in the 20th century.

In many Western universities, the way administrators have handled the conflict and its aftermath has revealed that the religious diversity of Jews and Muslims and their protected status as minorities often does not align with the prevailing focus framed as sexual diversity and in ethnic-racial terms, particularly in the fight against "white supremacy," which tends to overlook religious considerations.

"One enormous problem is posed by radical traditionalist Catholic groups, but there are also the progressive Catholics who think that Vatican II is passé, the last gasp of a church not inclusive enough, too Catholic to be modern."

There is an irresponsible complacency that takes Vatican II for granted, but at times, there is also a programmatic liquidation of that chapter of our magisterial and theological tradition, becoming particularly problematic when on display in Catholic schools and universities.

Nostra Aetate and Christian-Jewish relations built many bridges in the post-Vatican II period, but many of these bridges now need to be inspected and, in some cases, rebuilt, also within Catholicism.

This war redefines the contours of what Karma Ben-Johanan, a professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called in her 2022 book on Christian-Jewish relations after Vatican II "the new covenant between Jews and Christians as the edict of the hour".

The new war in the Middle East represents a critical moment for that new covenant. October 7, 2023, and its aftermath affect the Catholic Church at the most profound institutional, theological and religious levels, with internal, international, and diplomatic dimensions that we have just begun to see.

• First published in La Croix International
• Massimo Faggioli is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, columnist for La Croix

Speaking during a press briefing before the first anniversary of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel, Khairallah stressed that private agendas have overshadowed fundamental values such as human dignity and freedom.

Khairallah voiced frustration at the world's silence in the face of ongoing hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.

He remarked, "The world is quiet, it doesn't say anything… It even gives the green light for this violence because there are too many interests at the political and economic level".

These private interests "have nothing to do with our Christian values" he added.

Two-state solution

Khairallah also spoke of the potential role Pope Francis and Vatican diplomacy could play in fostering peace. He referenced Lebanon's historical significance as a model of religious coexistence.

Since 1948, the Holy See has consistently backed a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"This resolution has always been rejected up until today by the State of Israel, by Israeli politicians" Khairallah said. He insisted that many Israeli citizens want peace and demonstrate for peace. However, "interests have the upper hand".

The bishop also criticised Western nations, particularly the US, for not supporting those suffering in the Middle East.

"I think that this is a message from the synod that we are participating in this year: that the people who are oppressed should have the possibility, the right to decide concerning their future and their destiny" he said.

Peace through forgiveness

Drawing from personal experience, Khairallah highlighted the importance of forgiveness as a path to peace. He recounted how, at the age of five, his parents were killed in their home.

His aunt, a nun, taught him and his siblings to forgive their parents' killers and to "pray for those who killed [their parents] and to seek to forgive throughout your lives".

Khairallah believes that true peace can come only when individuals across all cultures and confessions work together, rather than being driven by political and economic agenda.

He acknowledged the difficulty of forgiveness but insisted it is not impossible, saying "We are capable of forgiving".

Khairallah called on all parties to set aside hatred, vengeance and war, and urged the Church to lead by example, fostering dialogue and mutual respect.

Sources

Crux Now

CathNews New Zealand

The Samaritans were once a community, with at least a million people in biblical times living across what we know today as the Middle East.

Today, only about 800 Samaritans remain. Read more

The country must remain a "land of tolerance and pluralism" he said as he welcomed Lebanon's Christian patriarchs to the Vatican last Thursday.

Francis prayed the Lord's Prayer in Arabic before he and the patriarchs lit a candle before the tomb of St. Peter.

It was the start of a busy day that included three, closed-door working meetings and a communal lunch.

The patriarchs - who stayed with Francis at his home - joined with him to pray for an end to the economic and political crisis that has thrown their country into chaos and threatened its Christian community. Their visit included an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, featuring prayers and hymns in Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Chaldean. Members of the Lebanese community in Rome and the diplomatic corps filled the pews.

During the service, Francis said Lebanon's vocation was to be an "oasis of fraternity where different religions and confessions meet, where different communities live together, putting the common good before their individual interests."

"Lebanon cannot be left prey to the course of events or (to) those who pursue their own unscrupulous interests," he said. "It is a small yet great country, but even more, it is a universal message of peace and fraternity arising from the Middle East."

Francis also pointed to the Lebanese political class from their responsibility for the mess which their country faces.

"Let there be an end to the few profiting from the sufferings of many! No more letting half-truths continue to frustrate people's aspirations!

"Stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interests and profits!"

He urged the international community to work so Lebanon "will not collapse, but embark upon a path of recovery."

"This will be to everyone's advantage," he said.

"Human relationships cannot be based on the pursuit of partisan interests, privileges and advantages," he insisted to Lebanese people at the service.

"We Christians are called to be sowers of peace and builders of fraternity, not nursing past grudges and regrets, not shirking the responsibilities of the present, but looking instead with hope to the future."

"Let us therefore assure our Muslim brothers and sisters, and those of other religions, of our openness and readiness to work together in building fraternity and promoting peace."

Earlier last week, the Vatican Foreign Minister Paul Gallagher urged other countries to help Lebanon with its "unparalleled economic and financial crisis". The country, must be prevented from descending into chaos to maintain a diversified Middle East, he said.

Lebanon is home to 6 million people, including an estimated 1 million refugees. It is the only Middle Eastern country with a Christian head of state.

Under Lebanon's power sharing agreement drawn up at the end of the 1975-1990 Civil War, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim and the President a Maronite Catholic. However, the ruling class's failure to agree on a new government has left the country without a government since August 2020.

Source

• AP News
• NewsWeek
• The Tablet
• La Croix
• Alarabya News
• Image: AP News

At stake is not just a religious community, but the fate of pluralism in the region.

The call came in 2014, shortly after Easter.

Four years earlier, Catrin Almako's family had applied for special visas to the United States. Catrin's husband, Evan, had cut hair for the U.S. military during the early years of its occupation of Iraq.

Now a staffer from the International Organization for Migration was on the phone.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

The family had been assigned a departure date just a few weeks away.

"I was so confused," Catrin (pictured) told me recently.

During the years they had waited for their visas, Catrin and Evan had debated whether they actually wanted to leave Iraq.

Both of them had grown up in Karamles, a small town in the historic heart of Iraqi Christianity, the Nineveh Plain.

Evan owned a barbershop near a church. Catrin loved her kitchen, where she spent her days making pastries filled with nuts and dates.

Their families lived there: her five siblings and aging parents, his two brothers.

But they also lived amid constant danger.

"Everybody who was working with the United States military—they get killed," Catrin said.

Evan had been injured by an explosion near a U.S. Army base in Mosul in 2004.

Catrin worried about him driving back and forth to the base along highways that cross some of the most contested land in Iraq.

Even after he stopped working for the military, they feared he might be a victim of violence.

That fear was compounded by their faith: During the war years, insurgents consistently targeted Christian towns and churches in a campaign of terror.

The Almakos had watched neighbors and friends wrestle with the same question: stay, or go?

Now more and more Christians in the region were deciding to leave.

The graph of the religion's decline in the Middle East has in recent years transformed from a steady downward slope into a cliff.

The numbers in Iraq are especially stark: Before the American invasion, as many as 1.4 million Christians lived in the country.

Today, fewer than 250,000 remain—an 80 percent drop in less than two decades.

The Almakos resolved to go.

They spent their remaining time in Karamles agonizing over what to bring with them, and what to leave behind. "You don't know what you're going to take," Evan told me.

"You have to discuss a lot of things: that one important, that one not important."

In the end, choosing among their possessions proved too difficult.

They decided to leave nearly every keepsake and heirloom, including boxes of pictures of their family and of their two young children, Ayoob, then 12, and Sofya, 10.

Catrin insisted on taking one sentimental item, a small cloth weaving of Jesus made in Italy.

On the Almakos' last night in Karamles, the people of the town descended on their house.

It seemed as if they all had a present they wanted Catrin and Evan to take to family members in America: sweets, spices, clothes.

Nothing you couldn't find in the United States, but "you can't tell them that," Evan said.

People in Iraq see the U.S. as a place of bounty, he explained, but it's still fundamentally foreign.

Of the family's three suitcases, one was filled with these gifts from home.

One by one, each of their family members tried to persuade Catrin and Evan to stay in Karamles.

Her older brother Thabet is a priest, and the town's most dedicated defender. "Don't leave,"

Catrin remembers him saying. "Stay here." Continue reading

• Image: The Atlantic

At the same time, President Trump announced plans to eventually relocate the US Embassy to the holy city.

Pope Francis responded to the change in US policy, saying he wants the "status quo" to remain.

He says he is "profoundly concerned" about recent developments concerning Jerusalem.

He declared the city a unique and sacred place for Christians, Jews and Muslims and that it has a "special vocation for peace."

He appealed "that everyone respects the status quo of the city," according to UN resolutions.

"I pray to the Lord that its identity is preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the whole world ...

"... and that wisdom and prudence prevail to prevent new elements of tension from being added to a global context already convulsed by so many cruel conflicts," he said on Wednesday.

Others have expressed concern about Trump's decision.

The Middle East has strongly objected to the move.

Carefully worded rebukes have also flowed in from US allies.

The US position in 1947 held that Jerusalem was a corpus seperatum: an internationally controlled entity that belonged to neither Arab nor Jew.

Bit by bit this view has altered. Firstly it adopted a policy of "limited internationalisation", while still opposing both Arabs and Israelis claiming Jerusalem as their capital.

Nonetheless, Israel has sought to claim Jerusalem as its capital.

Following the six-day war in 1967, a new policy was adopted.

This held that neither Israelis nor Arabs could claim Jerusalem as their capital.

The Vatican has long sought an internationally guaranteed status for Jerusalem that safeguards its sacred character for Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Francis spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, after President Donald Trump forewarned Abbas of his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Vatican said the call with Francis was made at Abbas's initiative.

Source

• The Washington Post
• The Washington Post
• National Catholic Register
• La Croix
• Zenit
• JSTOR
• Image: Time Magazine

Image:

An Iraqi Catholic priest says Australia has led the way in welcoming thousands of Christians who have been forced to leave their homes because of violence from radical militant groups such as the Islamic State. Read more

Like many young boys, he is happy to be interviewed.

This is war-torn Iraq, however, so he tells of the day ISIS came to his village. He starts to recount, horror after horror, what took place. It is hard to accept that one so young has already seen so much evil. Gradually, his retelling of what happened slows and he breaks down.

It is hard to watch as the tears flow down his cheeks. He tries to stem them, brushing them away…but to no avail. His grief is too great. He is now talking to himself as much as to the camera. He talks of when he used to go to school, ride his bicycle and play soccer with his friends—he stops. Again, he looks at the camera, finishing with the words: "Now all that is gone…"

This is just one of the harrowing testimonies in the new documentary Our Last Stand. The award-winning film tells the story of what is left of the ancient Christian communities in Iraq and Syria. ISIS, along with other Islamic extremists, is destroying the lives and the lands of Christians who have for centuries lived in peace with their more numerous Muslim neighbors. In this latest genocide, no one came to the aid of the Christians. They looked to the West, but no avail.

I recently spoke with the filmmakers, Jordan Allott and Helma Adde, after a screening of Our Last Stand.

CWR: What was the genesis of Our Last Stand?

Jordan Allott: For a number of years, I had been traveling in the Middle East doing work (shooting video, writing, taking photos) for an organization called In Defense of Christians. As I was learning more and more about the region, I was constantly thinking how best to present the plight of Christians in places like Iraq and Syria to a Western audience through film. Once I met Helma, who is a schoolteacher from New York (I was on a Fox News program with her father, who is a Syriac Orthodox priest) I knew she could act as a bridge between her family and community in Syria and an American or Western audience. After convincing Helma to travel with me, we set out to plan our journey to Iraq and Syria. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report, article and interview by K.V. Turley, a London-based freelance writer and filmmaker with a degree in theology from the Maryvale Institute.
• Image: Breitbart

Tarabeh grew up in Damascus, Syria, and her family still lives there despite the civil war made possible by the rise of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.

The war has raged for five years, killing hundreds of thousands of people and forcing millions to flee to safety in other nations.

Tarabeh's sister, Kinda, is also a Good Shepherd sister, serving refugees in a camp near Homs. Tarabeh, meanwhile, will spend the next six years in Rome, serving as the communications coordinator for the Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd congregation.

Previously, she worked in Lebanon and Syria, using her master's degree in graphic design.

GSR: What has it been like trying to do your work as a sister with the war going on?

Tarabeh: It's not easy to describe the situation there because there's not a word for it. It's a feeling more than words. In 2014 I went to our Good Shepherd community in Damascus, which was near my family's house, so I got to see them often.

Also while I was there, my niece was injured by a bomb when returning from school. I had a terrible time with her being in the hospital for a month — you cannot imagine all these people coming into the emergency room when there has been a bombing. You cannot imagine the things you see. And it comes without warning — you don't expect that there is a bomb coming. So people continue their lives, and then something happens. They live with pain, but they say, 'Whatever God wants to do, we are ready for this.'

I am a religious woman, and I cannot think this way. My family all the time says, 'We don't know what God plans for us, but we'll be ready.' They don't want to leave the country. This is our land, this is a sacred land for us. It's very painful when you see all these beautiful places that I grew up in, they are now dust. They no longer exist. There are no words to describe it. No words. Continue reading

Source and Image:

• Global Sisters Report, the beginning of an article by Dan Stockman, national correspondent for Global Sisters Report.

The two leaders met for 135 minutes in Cuba on February 12.

It was the first meeting of this kind for nearly 1000 years.

A joint statement was issued, in which Francis and Kirill declared: "We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide all our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world."

"We urge Catholics and Orthodox in all countries to learn to live together in peace and love, and to be 'in harmony with one another'," they stated.

Pope Francis said he and Kirill spoke freely at the meeting.

The Pontiff said the discussions were tantamount to "a conversation of brothers", where each "spoke with frankness" about their worries and concerns.

Later, Francis also appeared to downplay some of the more strongly worded sections of the joint statement, saying: "It is not a political declaration . . . it is a pastoral declaration."

The 30-paragraph statement dealt with several controversial political issues, including: the continuing violence in Ukraine; persecution of Christians in the Middle East; issues of marriage and family life; and the practices of abortion and euthanasia.

At the beginning of their declaration, the Christian leaders wrote that they hope their meeting may be an example to the world.

Speaking of the changes facing humanity, Francis and Kirill wrote: "Human civilisation has entered into a period of epochal change."

"Our Christian conscience and our pastoral responsibility compel us not to remain passive in the face of challenges requiring a shared response," they stated.

The statement devoted six paragraphs to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, calling on the international community "to act urgently" to prevent even more Christians from fleeing the region.

It also mentioned the violence in Iraq and Syria, and strongly denounced terrorism and the use of religion to justify violence.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Full text: Statement by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill
• The Guardian
• Image: Reuters

This is the first time the European Parliament has acknowledged an ongoing conflict as genocide.

Lars Adaktusson, the Swedish MEP who tabled the resolution, said the significance of the move is the obligations that follow.

"The collective obligation to intervene, to stop these atrocities and to stop the persecution in the ongoing discussion about the fight against the Islamic State," he said.

The resolution may pave the way for Britain and the US State Department to give similar recognition to ISIS's slaughter of Christians.

A motion to that effect has been tabled in the UK's House of Commons.

Continue reading

The Fathers expressed fraternal sorrow for families forced to flee their homes, and gratitude for those nations that have welcomed refugee families with generosity.

To better understand the the difficulties endured, Catholic World Report recently interviewed the Titular Bishop of Tarsus of the Maronites, Antoine Nabil Andari, Vicaire Patriarcal Maronite de Jounieh, Lebanon.

CWR: Can you please describe the political and spiritual situation in the Middle East?

Bishop Andari: You know, in Lebanon and in the Middle East, it's been many years now that we've been living in a situation that is not normal, an instability in part from the lack of security, economic, and social.

This began in Lebanon following the 1975 War, and continues in Syria, Iraq and other Middle-Eastern countries. And this has repercussions on the residents, on both the civil and ecclesial societies, and in a special way on the family.

Families are chased from their homes, they are displaced, and therefore there are repercussions to this, sometimes breakups, or else there is emigration which is in large part that of persecuted Christians because of their faith.

For this reason these families must be supported, not only locally but also internationally, whether political or by the Church. In the current Synod on the Family, this approach is taken.

We speak of the challenges. In terms of social, cultural and anthropological challenges, we speak of the refugees, the persecuted, everyone. Yet how does one realize, implement this support? For it demands a welcoming, an assistance, a solidarity.

Therefore these three essential points—how do we realize them on the ground? For this, we need support from everyone. Society and the Church can do something. But not only the Church alone.

Diplomatic support is also required, by disseminating information, supporting the Christian presence in the Middle East which, without Christ, without Christians, is not the cradle of Christianity. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report, from an interview by Mary Jo Anderson, a Catholic journalist and speaker whose articles and commentaries on politics, religion, and culture appear in a variety of publications.
• Image: CDN

The Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, Louis Raphael I, says he is concerned. He is not convinced about certain consequences of Europe's new policy on refugees fleeing Syria and other conflict zones.

Many sister churches in Europe have been involved in this call to action. He was keen to share his perplexity and concern with other pastors of Eastern Churches.

What is your view on the international community's recent actions with regard to the Middle East? Is something moving at last?
"Last Friday, I met all heads of Churches in Baghdad at the Chaldean Cathedral, along with a number of nuns and priests.

"We are asking ourselves how this can be happening now after four years of war in Syria and 12 conflicts and massacres in Iraq. After the situation was allowed to deteriorate for so long. I am worried."

Are you referring to the refugee situation? Are you concerned about who opens the doors or closes them?
"This question cannot be dealt with in a sentimental or superficial way. What is required here is discernment. The only lasting solutions are those which can be implemented on the ground.

"These kinds of solutions need time and patience in getting processes going and guiding them. But this does not seem to interest national leaders and international organisations. They prefer to let the public's emotions influence their actions." Continue reading

Sources

• Vassallomalta
• Image: acnuk

The 3-year-old boy, named Aylan, along with his 5-year-old brother, Galip, and their mother, Rehan, drowned after the raft carrying them capsized near the Turkish coast.

Millions of refugees are scrambling to escape from the life-threatening civil wars plaguing several countries from Nigeria to Pakistan.

According to the British newspaper The Independent, half of Syria's population - approximately 11 million people - have been forced to flee; with four million living as refugees in foreign nations. And approximately 2.6 million Iraqis have been displaced, both due to civil wars and the barbarism of the Islamic State.

Matt Wilch, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) refugee policy advisor for Migration and Refugee Service, told me that of the four million Syrian refugees, 1.8 million are being hosted by Turkey, Jordan has 1 million, Egypt has 200,000, tiny Lebanon is hosting over 1 million, and ironically even war-torn Iraq has opened its doors to 200,000 Syrians.

But according to U.S. State Department figures, since March of 2011 - when the Syrian conflict started - only 1,554 Syrians have been admitted through the U.S. refugee resettlement program. This is shameful.

Wealthy Europe, the U.S. and other western countries have a moral obligation to offer far more help.

Germany is providing an excellent example here. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said that any Syrian arriving in Germany would be granted asylum.

With 800,000 refugees expected to arrive in Germany before year's end, Merkel has been urging Germans to rise to the challenge. She said, "There can be no tolerance of those who question the dignity of other people."

Wilch said if the U.S. and other wealthy nations would provide much more aid to Syria's neighboring nations, not only would refugees be able to benefit from improved services, but most would not feel compelled to take the long dangerous journey to Europe.

Wilch said only 37 percent of the needs of refugees are being funded in these neighboring host countries.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, approximately 2,500 people have perished en route to Europe since the beginning of this year alone.

In New Zealand, in a letter to Prime Minister John Key, Archbishops Philip Richardson and Brown Turei (Anglican) and John Cardinal Dew (Catholic) say the refugee crises in the Middle East and Africa require "a global response."

"Our country needs to play its part and to respond with the compassion and the hospitality for which we are renowned," the church leaders write.

"We have done so in the past, we continue to support newcomers and we commit ourselves and our resources into the future to this task."

To go the extra mile, individuals may consider making a donation to Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand to support its work in the Middle East.

Pope Francis has strong words for those who would turn away refugees: It is "violence to erect walls and barriers to block those seeking a place of peace. It is violence to push back those fleeing from inhuman conditions in the hope of a better future."

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist.

He was a tyrant, they said, who, after 14 years of marriage, wouldn't let their sister, Rana, 31, have her own mobile phone. He isolated her from friends and family, guarding her jealously.

Although Diyaa and Rana were both from Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq, they didn't know each other before their families arranged their marriage. It hadn't gone especially well.

Rana was childless, and according to the brothers, Diyaa was cheap. The house he rented was dilapidated, not fit for their sister to live in.

Qaraqosh is on the Nineveh Plain, a 1,500-square-mile plot of contested land that lies between Iraq's Kurdish north and its Arab south.

Until last summer, this was a flourishing city of 50,000, in Iraq's breadbasket. Wheat fields and chicken and cattle farms surrounded a town filled with coffee shops, bars, barbers, gyms and other trappings of modern life.

Then, last June, ISIS took Mosul, less than 20 miles west. The militants painted a red Arabic ‘‘n,'' for Nasrane, a slur, on Christian homes.

They took over the municipal water supply, which feeds much of the Nineveh Plain.

Many residents who managed to escape fled to Qaraqosh, bringing with them tales of summary executions and mass beheadings.

The people of Qaraqosh feared that ISIS would continue to extend the group's self-styled caliphate, which now stretches from Turkey's border with Syria to south of Fallujah in Iraq, an area roughly the size of Indiana.

In the weeks before advancing on Qaraqosh, ISIS cut the city's water. As the wells dried up, some left and others talked about where they might go.

In July, reports that ISIS was about to take Qaraqosh sent thousands fleeing, but ISIS didn't arrive, and within a couple of days, most people returned. Diyaa refused to leave. He was sure ISIS wouldn't take the town. Continue reading

Sources

• Eliza Griswold is the author of ‘‘The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam.'' The article above is from The New York Times.
• Image: Middle East Eye

The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand awarded scholarships to Adele Churchman of Roncalli College in Timaru, Colin Macleod of Kavanagh College in Dunedin and Dan Stollenwerk from St Peter's College in Auckland.

The three visited the Holy Land and received lectures on the life, music, literature and art in Europe's Jewish ghettos.

The teachers also learned about the history of anti-semitism, up to the creation of the state of Israel.

Among questions discussed were "Did anti-semitism in the medieval Catholic Church contribute to the Holocaust?" and "Where was God in the Holocaust?"

They also considered the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

Continue reading

Born in 1947 in Nazareth, Shoufani was driven out of his family village the following year by the Israelis who killed his grandfather and uncle.

He was reared by his grandmother, who taught him to appreciate the value of forgiveness.

When entered the priesthood in 1966, he was sent to a seminary in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.

He discovered Dachau, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism during a trip to Germany.

He became principal of St.-Joseph de Nazareth middle school in 1976, where he initiated his Christian and Muslim students to dialogue with the Jews, taking them to the Yad Vashem Memorial.

He also brought young Jews, Muslims and Christians to visit Auschwitz and was awarded the UNESCO prize for peace education in 2003.

In 2010, his superiors removed him from his position as middle school principal because of his divergent views, but he remains the parish priest of Nazareth.

As the situation in Israel once again becomes unstable, he continues to call for dialogue and peace.

The situation between Israelis and Palestinians appears to be on the verge of a third Intifada. After more than 30 years of commitment to dialogue, haven't you lost hope?

Fr. Émile Shoufani: Not at all. The media do not provide us with an in-depth understanding of the situation.

There are incidents that take place, movements involving a few people and demagoguery used by a handful of politicians to establish their power.

But there is a way out of this situation if we are honest enough to start from the interest of our two peoples and support projects for peace and reconciliation. Continue reading

Sources

• Global Pulse
• Image: Toothless & Hiccup

He has written to Prime Minister John Key, offering the support of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops for the cautious and measured approach to making decisions about New Zealand's involvement in the Middle East conflict.

"We are aware of the difficult challenge this situation presents for countries and world leaders, and we offer the Prime Minister our prayers as he makes further decisions about New Zealand's involvement," said Dew.

"We've also urged the New Zealand Government to use its seat on the Security Council of the United Nations to find a way to move beyond the impasse on Iraq and Syria, and which will allow actions to be carried out under the UN banner."

The New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference has also asked Key to be open to further humanitarian assistance for Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

"While our concern is not only for Catholics, Catholic Syrians and Iraqis in New Zealand speak to us regularly about their deep concern for the desperate situation faced by family members in Syria and Iraq or who have become refugees."

"These insights about the effects the actions of ISIS are having on ordinary people are deeply moving."

"We encourage Catholics to remain steadfast in their prayers for the people affected by the conflict and for the world's leaders - remaining hopeful that together we can bring lasting peace to the Middle East."

Source

• Supplied NZCBC
• Image: sconews.co.uk