ISIS Archives

Envoy says everyone suffers in Syria, but Christians are ‘weakest link’

October 19, 2017

Syria once had relatively good relations between Christians and Muslims, but the civil war means that will be harder to achieve in the future, according to Italian Cardinal Mario Zenari, the pope’s ambassador in Syria. “For Muslims, it is a long way from separating religion from the state and reaching the concept of citizenship. Syria was ahead of it, it had a secular tendency,” he said.

Unrelenting killing of Coptic Christians intensifies debate over martyrdom

Recently a well-known Coptic priest, Father Boules George, took to television to “thank” the Islamic State terrorists who orchestrated the Palm Sunday bombings for creating martyrs. Other Coptic Christians want better living standards and civil rights today, not hope in the afterlife.

Despair, joy, defiance, and resignation all abound in unique Lebanon

In many ways, Lebanon is unique in the Middle East. Christians are a robust 35 to 40 percent of the population, and the country has long had a tradition of power-sharing to make co-existence possible. The country is also, however, surrounded by chaos, and right now the strain of a very large refugee population is pushing both the government and the Church’s resources to the breaking point, which could unleash consequences no one can foresee.

Refugees say life is hard, but without the Church it would be impossible
- Global Church
- October 13, 2017
Talking to Syrian Christian refugees in Lebanon, it’s obvious that life is hardly a walk in the park. However, to a person they also say that it would be infinitely worse without the assistance of the local Church. The Greek Melkite Archdiocese of Zahle, for instance, is spending roughly $2 million per year to provide housing, food, medication, schooling, and other basic necessities, as Lebanon copes with the world’s largest per capita refugee crisis.
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Egyptian Coptic priest killed in Cairo attack
- Associated Press, Global Church
- October 12, 2017
A priest in Egypt has died after an attacker struck his head with a cleaver. The assailant was later arrested. Attacks on Egypt’s Christians, who account for about 10 percent of the country’s 94 million people, have surged in recent months, with a series of suicide bombings claimed by the extremist Islamic State group killing more than 100 since December.
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In Lebanon, Catholics can’t afford the Church’s culture wars
- News Analysis
- October 12, 2017
Moving around the Catholic world, it’s often striking how the culture wars in the Church over matters such as liturgy and “Amoris Laetitia” are products of affluent and basically stable societies, while places with real wars to worry about have more existential concerns. A visit to a Catholic hospital in Lebanon confirmed the point, where the CEO found questions about its Catholic identity almost impossible to fathom.
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