Despite risks, Iraqis want Pope Francis to go ahead with visit
- Mar 4, 2021
“We are concerned by the increasing militarization and authoritarianism of the Sri Lankan government,” said Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Stretching the church calendar, Orthodox Easter arrived over a month late in a Romanian city on the shores of the Black Sea.
On the one-year anniversary of the bloody Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, the nation shared in a moment of silence to honor the nearly 300 people who died as government investigations continue and victims continue struggling to pick up the pieces of their broken lives.
A handful of Eastern Orthodox priests held mass for the Christian holiday of Easter on Sunday in an empty Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem due to restrictions in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Up and down Italy over the Easter weekend, police entered churches and broke up services, issuing citations and fines to those taking part, in several instances including the parish priest. Yet not only has there been no howl of protest from the country’s Catholic leadership, almost uniformly bishops have sided with the authorities.
The recent response of two parents to the deaths of three of their children and a niece illustrated what Easter is about, said Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher.
Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East, in Easter messages from churches barren of the faithful due to the coronavirus, lamented the scourge of the pandemic while evoking the hope of the Resurrection.