For these working stiffs, ambivalence rather than amore from the Pope
- Apr 18, 2021
Despite being surrounded by war, persecution and destruction, the archbishop of war-torn Aleppo in Syria says that he’s still able to find happiness.
The Vatican’s ambassador to Syria has urged the international community not to forget the country, which has been crippled by a decade of civil war, and appealed for governments to assist Syrian migrants and refugees living abroad.
Robert Chelhod is Syrian living in Aleppo who works for AMU (Azione per un Mondo Unito – Actions for a United World), an NGO associated with the Focolare Catholic lay movement.
Religious freedom advocates and medical practitioners have expressed concerns about the COVID-19 response in northeast Syria.
Humanitarians caring for displaced Syrians in and outside their country are calling for an end to Syria’s brutal civil war as it enters its 10th year. The magnitude of displacement, death and destruction in Syria marks one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises right now, the United Nations and human rights groups have said.
In a Sunday Angelus message livestreamed by the Vatican rather than delivered in front of a live crowd in St. Peter’s Square as a precaution, Pope Francis expressed his closeness in prayer to those suffering from the epidemic and also renewed his “great apprehension” for unarmed victims of Syria’s civil war.
Turkey and Greece are trading blame following the deaths of Syrian refugees trying to flee to Europe, but some observers believe Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is weaponizing the Syrian refugee humanitarian crisis.
Syrian government forces and Russian warplanes are bombing Idlib province, while tens of thousands of people are sheltering under strips of plastic tenting in the freezing cold and snow.