The CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC “We were obliged to bury many people” The present situation in the Central African Republic, following five years of war and violence, is a profoundly distressing one. Speaking to the 37th Ordinary Session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Bishop Juan José Aguirre-Muñoz of Bangassou described the country as...
DAMASCUS “The Christians are scared to death and fear for their lives” The current military offensive in Syria not only affects the inhabitants of the Eastern Ghouta region but also those of neighbouring Damascus. The shelling of the capital city continues. The Christian district at the eastern edge of the old city has also...
SYRIA New soles for Syrian souls More than 450 of the poorest elderly people in Syria have received new shoes – thanks to a leading Catholic charity. The grant, made by the UK office of Aid to the Church in Need, provides for people in Aleppo in their 60s and 70s, many of them living...
JERUSALEM Why church authorities closed the Holy Sepulchre church in protest Last Wednesday the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem reopened its doors. Last Sunday the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Church representatives had jointly decided to close this sacred building indefinitely, in protest against two controversial Israeli actions. In the interview below, Maria...
IRAQ “ It is not enough to say that ISIS does not represent Islam” Archbishop Bashar Warda of Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil (Iraq) said that it is not enough for Muslims to say that the Islamic State (ISIS) does not represent them. Christians in Iraq “need more”. he said. He encouraged Muslim countries to” take...
KOREA What will happen to the inter-Korean Olympic romance after the Olympic fire has gone out? Rarely have current politics played such a key role in the Olympic Winter Games as they did in PyeongChang. Maria Lozano spoke with the director of the South Korean office of Aid to the Church in Need in...
ACN Malta congratulates Mgr Alfred Xuereb on his appointment as bishop and Nuncio to South Korea The Archdiocese of Malta and the Diocese of Gozo have welcomed the appointment of Gozitan Mgr Alfred Xuereb as Apostolic Nuncio of Seoul for South Korea and his elevation to titular Archbishop of Amantea in Italy. Mgr was born in Victoria in October 1958....
ACN has high-level meeting to channel more UN help for Iraqi Christians in Nineveh Representatives of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and the Knights of Columbus (KoC) were received on Monday by Mr. Mourad Wahba the Assistant Secretary General at the United Nations Development Programme to brief the UN on the situation of...
SYRIA “When the sky turned black with bombs” – eyewitness account from Damascus A religious Sister in Damascus has told how she, fellow nuns and students narrowly escaped death onTuesday, 20th February when the sky “turned black” on one of the deadliest days of the conflict in the Syrian capital. Describing the situation at...
SYRIA Pope and Nuncio appeal for end to violence Pope Francis appealed for an immediate end to the violence in Syria, especially where the war has intensified in eastern Ghouta. He noted that February has been one of the most violent in the seven years of the conflict. “In these days my thought often...
