PHILIPPINES Manila churches could cancel services over terrorism threat Filipino cardinal Cardinal Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato has condemned as an act of “terrorism” a bomb explosion outside a Catholic church in the southern Philippines which injured three people. The attack took place as Mass-goers were leaving Our Lady of Hope Church on Sunday, 27th November,...
Aleppo update – eye witness account of shelling of Jesuit centre in Aleppo “What more can I say? Sometimes, in the face of disaster, people think that God should not have allowed it to happen. But we who live with death – avoidably, for we could avoid it by moving out of the city...
MEXICO Religious Right begins to assert itself in secular society The religious right is rising as a political force in Mexico, where the church has been relegated to the sidelines of public life for decades. Conservative Catholics and other Christian groups now attempting to influence the National Congress and mobilize the masses. The growing...
IRAQ “We are still afraid” During a visit to the international headquarters of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Syrian Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Yohanna Petros Mouche, deplored the fact that Christians were still afraid of returning to their villages, despite the liberation of the Nineveh plains. He said...
INDONESIA Christians in Aceh have to pray in the forest A year ago six churches in Aceh province of Indonesia were destroyed by mobs at the behest of Islamic extremists. Mobs incited by hardline preachers demanded all unregistered churches be destroyed and attacked several, burning them to the ground. Eleven churches in total were...
EGYPT Bomb in Cairo Coptic cathedral complex kills 25 people On Monday Egyptians held a prayer service for 25 Christians killed the day before at St Peter’s church in Cairo. “Silence. Interior silence that longs for hope, for healing, for pardon, for justice and for peace.” These were the words of Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II...
EU exhibits Aleppo children’s Peace drawings In the week before the Skype conference with EU politicians, in West Aleppo a group of 25 Christian and Muslim children under the guidance of the Franciscan friar Fr. Ibrahim prepared songs, drawings and special messages of peace. European Parliament Vice-President Antonio Tajani working together with Aid to the...
CAMEROON – Emergency aid for victims of Boko Haram suicide attack The diocese of Maroua-Mokolo is situated in the north of Cameroon on the frontier region with Nigeria. Again and again it has suffered from attacks by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. It is of course true that the armed, military-style attacks by the...
PAKISTAN – Churches ordered to enhance security measures against terrorist attacks Again and again horrific terrorist attacks are taking place in Pakistan. Christians are not the only victims of the terrorists, but Christian churches and other institutions are particularly at risk. One of the places that has suffered most in this respect has been the...
Eastern Aleppo is ‘one giant graveyard’ says UN humanitarian chief Last week, as government forces stormed into eastern Aleppo 25,000 people had been forced from their homes, more than half of them children. Video footage showed the bodies of dead children being carried off the streets as what is left of the rebel enclave...
