Anti-Christian persecution Archives

Pope: Clergy in Middle East must be the ‘last among the least’

Pope Francis called clergy in the Middle East to “learn to be the last among the least,” and lamented the continued plight of Christians suffering due to persecution. “Let us not forget,” the pope said, that “Christians — it doesn’t matter whether they are Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant — shed their blood as a seal of their witness.”

Nun detained in India, in latest anti-Christian incident

For the third time in less than a month, a group of Christians have been detained while trying to travel by train in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. They have been accused of trying to convert Hindus. Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal has strongly condemned what he has termed “harassment” of a religious minority.

Iraqi martyr remembered in Rome ten years after murder

Rome’s Pontifical Irish College celebrated Holy Trinity Mass in the memory of Father Ragheed Ganni, a former resident. In 2007, the 35-year-old Iraqi priest was shot to death by Islamic militants. Also killed were three subdeacons: Basman Daoud, Ghasan Bidawid and Waheed Isho’a.

House OKs bill to aid genocide victims; Senate urged to act quickly on it
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- June 8, 2017
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act, or H.R. 390, in a voice vote. The bill will provide emergency relief and aid to the victims of genocide in Iraq and Syria, particularly the Christians in the Middle East as well as other religious minorities.
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Filipino Catholics plead for non-military solution to Islamic violence
- Global Church
- June 7, 2017
As Jihadist violence escalates on the Filipino island of Mindanao, Church leaders in one of the world’s most Catholic countries, including a priest kidnapped by forces linked to ISIS, are appealing to the notoriously tough-talking President Rodrigo Duterte to pursue non-military solutions to the conflict, arguing that it will “sow seeds of distrust, division, further biases and prejudices.”
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In Catholic terms, anyway, US/Europe ties seem in good shape
- Analysis
- June 4, 2017
At a time when political ties between the United States and Europe seem to be unraveling, exacerbated by Trump’s recent decision to abandon the Paris climate change agreement, there’s a case to be made that in Catholic terms, the “Atlantic alliance” is actually strong and getting stronger.
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