Pope Francis phones to comfort priest at refugee camp in Iraq
Pope Francis telephoned a priest serving refugees at a camp in northern Iraq last month after receiving a heartfelt letter from him about the suffering of Christians there. Fr Behnam Benoka, who...
View ArticleUS cardinal urges solidarity with Iraqi Christians
Cardinal Donald W Wuerl of Washington has made an impassioned plea for solidarity with persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria and strongly urged that voices be raised...
View ArticlePrince Charles supports Iraqi Christians facing ‘diabolic evil’
The Prince of Wales has made a donation to Iraqi Christians who he said are suffering from “diabolic evil” under ISIS. In a letter to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, Prince Charles wrote that he was...
View ArticlePope: Iraq’s persecuted Christians are bold witnesses of Christ
Iraqi Christians are true and courageous witnesses of Christ’s message of hope, forgiveness and love, Pope Francis has said. “The Church suffers with you and is proud of you, proud to have children...
View ArticleCameron not ruling out military action against Islamic State
David Cameron has said he is not ruling out military action to combat the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq and Syria. The prime minister, speaking ahead of a Nato summit in Wales, also restated the...
View ArticleThe dangerous ignorance of Russell Brand
I don’t think Russell Brand has read much Orwell. Not just because he recently described Owen Jones as our generation’s incarnation of the left-wing iconoclast, but because yesterday he engaged in the...
View ArticleReports: Pope Francis to visit Turkey in November
Pope Francis will pay an official visit to Turkey at the end of November, according to reports. Catholic News Agency (CNA) have reported that Pope Francis’s visit may take place from November 29 to 30,...
View ArticleNun says misery of Iraqis ‘pierced my heart like a knife’
Sister Marie Claude Naddaf, provincial leader of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd for Lebanon and Syria, is still shaken by what she witnessed visiting Irbil, Iraq. Sister Marie Claude accompanied...
View ArticleCardinal Nichols: ‘Jihadist John’ represents humanity at its worst
Cardinal Vincent Nichols condemned ISIS and its spokesman Jihadist John as “blasphemous and corrupting” in an ecumenical address at Lambeth Palace yesterday. In his address to the Nikaean Club,...
View ArticlePatriarchs urge West to stop extinction of Middle East Christians
United in the suffering of their people, five Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs from the Middle East urged Westerners to take action to help ensure that Christians and other minorities can remain in the...
View ArticlePope: Iraq-Syria terrorism has reached ‘unimaginable proportions’
The Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria, are experiencing “terrorism of previously unimaginable proportions” in which the perpetrators seem to have absolutely no regard for the value of human life,...
View ArticleWe must do more to combat ISIS’s insidious propaganda
The Americans sometimes speak of ‘public diplomacy’; in British English this is usually rendered as waging a ‘hearts and minds campaign’. The Soviets used to practice agitprop, which means agitation...
View ArticleMuslim leaders from around the world issue ISIS rebuke
More than 100 Muslim leaders — clerics and laypeople alike — have signed an open letter criticising terrorist group ISIS. In the 17-page letter, the leaders quote extensively from the Quran to rebuke...
View ArticleThe Iraqis determined to seize control of their future after fleeing ISIS
When ISIS was pushing its way into Qaraqosh, a Christian town in Iraq’s north-western Nineveh Plain, late in June, Hayfaa Messo was at the town’s hospital visiting her eldest daughter. A mother of...
View ArticleCardinal Tagle: Poverty was one of the synod’s major concerns
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila said the Synod of Bishops on the family was more than a series of discussions on divorce and gay unions and that the impact of poverty on families, especially in...
View ArticleThe war against ISIS continues in the Middle East, and the war of words...
The news that soldiers of fortune from Britain and America are now active in Syria fighting ISIS in alliance with the Kurds was the lead story on Channel Four News last night. It also was a lead story...
View ArticlePope says he would ‘never close the door’ on talks with Islamic State
Pope Francis has said he would “never close the door” on dialogue with the Islamic State in an effort to bring peace to a region of the world suffering from violence and persecution. He also said that...
View ArticleKurds claim major breakthrough against ISIS on Mount Sinjar
Kuridsh forces have said that they have made a major breakthrough in their battle to end ISIS’s seige of Mount Sinjar where thousands of Yazidis and other displaced Iraqis have been trapped since...
View ArticleKurdish forces take Mount Sinjar from ISIS
Kurdish forces have captured the Iraqi mountain where Yazidi refugees had been stranded since the summer. The peshmerga fighters took Mount Sinjar from ISIS yesterday with the help of US air strikes on...
View ArticleChristian clergy visit family of Muslim pilot captured by ISIS
Christian clergy led by the Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem have visited the family of the Muslim Jordanian pilot captured by ISIS and expressed their support. Lt Muath Kasasbeh, 26, became the...
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