Morning Catholic must-reads: 01/11/10
A total of 52 hostages, including three priests, were killed yesterday after Iraqi security forces attempted to free Mass-goers held by suspected al-Qaeda gunmen at a Catholic church in Baghdad....
View ArticleThree priests among dozens killed in attack on Baghdad church
Three priests were among the dozens of people who were killed during an attack on a church in central Baghdad yesterday. Islamic militants stormed Our Lady of Salvation Syrian Catholic church during...
View ArticlePope condemns ‘absurd violence’ of Baghdad church siege
Pope Benedict XVI has described yesterday’s deadly militant siege of a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad as a “savage” act of “absurd violence”. The Pope urged international and national authorities and...
View ArticleDeath and destruction will not have the final word
Even by the standards of savagery we have come to expect in Iraq, Sunday’s attack on a Catholic church in Baghdad, in which 58 people were killed and another 70 to 80 seriously wounded, was...
View ArticleEnglish archbishop expresses horror at Baghdad massacre
Update: The remembrance service will now take place at Westminster Cathedral on Friday, November 27. Archbishop Nichols will preside and preach. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of...
View ArticleWave of bomb blasts target Christians in Baghdad
A series of bomb blasts targeting Christians in Baghdad has killed at least three people and injured two dozen more, security sources have said. At least 14 roadside bombs were detonated and a mortar...
View ArticleMorning Catholic must-reads: 11/11/10
Survivors of yesterday’s attacks on the Christian community in Baghdad are contacting western embassies in the hope of gaining asylum, reports the Guardian. Men dressed in military uniforms have killed...
View ArticleTime is running out for Iraq’s Christians, says archbishop
Iraq’s ancient Christian community has run out of time and will disappear soon, a senior Iraqi churchman has said. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil made his alarming prediction at a press conference...
View ArticleMorning Catholic must-reads: 01/11/11
Sister Elizabeth Johnson has urged Cardinal Donald Wuerl to retract his claim that she refused repeated requests to discuss her controversial book Quest for the Living God (full text of email)....
View ArticleWe have betrayed Iraqi Christians twice
The travails Iraq has undergone in the decade since the invasion in 2003 have largely played out among, and between, the country’s major ethno-religious groups: Sunni and Shia Arabs, and Kurds. But...
View ArticleForeign intervention won’t help Iraq, says Baghdad archbishop
THE international community should not intervene in the struggle against Isis extremists in Iraq, according to the Archbishop of Baghdad. Archbishop Jean Sleiman told Catholic charity Aid to the Church...
View ArticleIraq’s implosion is another disaster for Christians in the Middle East
When I was a student in Rome, doing research for my doctorate, I was friendly with an Iraqi Catholic from Mosul, whom I will call Luigi. This was just before the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam...
View Article‘Church in Iraq in perhaps its darkest period,’ says patriarch
The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad called the current situation in his country “perhaps the darkest and most difficult period in (the Church’s) recent history.” In a telephone...
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Baghdad vicar: With attention on Gaza, Islamic State free to persecute Iraqi...
With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, Islamist militants in Iraq can perpetrate their crimes without fear of facing justice, the Anglican vicar of Baghdad has said. Andrew White, an Anglican...
View ArticlePope offers encouragement to beleaguered Middle Eastern faithful
Pope Francis has expressed concern for members of the Syriac Catholic Church who have had to flee from the “inhumanity” unfolding in the Middle East. “Many have fled to find refuge from an inhumanity...
View ArticlePatriarch hopeful Pope Francis will visit Iraq
Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako has said he is hopeful that Pope Francis will visit Iraq next year. Patriarch Sako, the leader of the Chaldean Church, which is in communion with Rome, made the comments...
View ArticleSaint of the Week: Ss Cyril and Methodius (February 14)
Born in Macedonia in the ninth century, these Byzantine brothers changed the course of European history by bringing Orthodox Christianity to the Slavs of the Balkans. They have been revered in the...
View ArticlePapal envoy in Iraq comforts refugees waiting to go home
The head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Churches has visited Iraq to convey Pope Francis’s blessing and concern for Church officials and the displaced living and working in difficult...
View ArticleThe Sisters who are ready for martyrdom
It’s the ecclesiastical equivalent of a royal warrant, we decided over lunch. That’s what it is like to find oneself “by appointment” to the Missionaries of Charity. It’s such an honour for the person...
View ArticleChaldean patriarch appeals to Iraqi leaders to work for reconciliation
Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad urged Iraq’s leaders to put an end to the “institutional, economic and security deterioration” in the country. “We call upon you, with a saddened heart...
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