Nigeria’s bishops call for processions to honor those killed in church attack

Maputo, Mozambique, Sep 6, 2019 / 05:10 am (CNA).- Jesus calls his followers to a high standard – to forgive their enemies, to pray for those who have hurt them, and to seek reconciliation, Pope Francis said at Mass in Mozambique Friday.

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Jerusalem, Jan 23, 2018 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed America’s commitment to both peace and persecuted Christians during his four-day trip to Israel and the Middle East, which concluded on Tuesday.

In a Jan. 22 speech to the Knesset, Israel’s national legislature, Pence confirmed that the U.S. government intends to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of 2019.

“Our President made his decision…we believe that his decision is in the best interests of peace. By finally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the United States has chosen fact over fiction. And fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace,” said Pence, who added that America will support a two-state solution if both Israel and Palestine are in agreement.

On Dec. 6, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Israel has traditionally always recognized Jerusalem as its capital. However, Palestinians claim that the eastern portion of the city is the capital of the future Palestinian state. In recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the U.S. is the first country to do so since the state was established in 1948.

As a result of the announcement, Pence’s trip to the Middle East was postponed, taking on a new tone and focus.

Pence had posted on Twitter on Dec. 4, “Important dialogue with Bashar Warda, the Archbishop of Erbil, about @POTUS’ commitment to directly assist persecuted Christians & religious minorities in Iraq. I’m heading to the Middle East this month to discuss U.S. plans to accelerate funding those impacted in the region.”

However, following Trump’s Dec. 6 announcement, the Egyptian Coptic patriarch Tawadros II and other religious leaders stated that they would not meet with Pence.

Thirteen religious leaders in the region signed an open letter warning that the move would only lead to “increased hatred, conflict, violence and suffering in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, moving us father from the goal of unity and deeper toward destructive division.”

The announcement was also met with opposition from the Vatican, which has long called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

With stops in both Jordan and Egypt in additional to Israel, Pence cut his formerly planned visits to Bethlehem and the West Bank during his rescheduled four-day January trip this week.

Pence did have a chance to speak about U.S. plans to aid persecuted Christians towards the end of his speech to the Israeli parliament. He told Israeli lawmakers that the U.S. is dedicated to its assistance of Christians and other religious minorities in the region.

“We will also support faith leaders in this region and across the world, as they teach their disciples to practice love, not hate. And we will help persecuted peoples, who have suffered so much at the hands of ISIS and other terrorist groups,” he said.

“To this end, the United States has redirected funding from ineffective relief efforts. And, for the first time, we are providing direct support to Christian and other religious minorities as they rebuild their communities after years of repression and war.

“The United States has already committed more than $110 million to assist Christian and other religious minorities across the wider Middle East.”

The vice president rounded out his trip with a personal visit to the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Reflecting on his trip, Pence wrote of Israel on Twitter, “I never fail to leave without a sense our faith has been renewed – our faith in God, but also our faith in the people of Israel & their commitment to freedom, security & peace.”

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Mosul, Iraq, Feb 18, 2020 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- The rebuilding of a Syriac Catholic church in Mosul, Iraq, destroyed by ISIS will begin soon, the U.N.’s heritage agency (UNESCO) announced last week.

Al-Tahera church, in the old city of Mosul, was severely damaged after ISIS invaded the city in June of 2014.

Among numerous documented murders and other atrocities committed against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in the area, ISIS destroyed at least 28 significant religious sites in the city, one of which was the Al-Tahera church.

The church suffered extensive damage to its arcade and outer wall which must be rebuilt, as well as its remaining ceiling which will be demolished and reconstructed. Landmines inside the church will also have to be removed.

UNESCO announced in October that it was partnering with the United Arab Emirates to rebuild the church which was built in 1862. The partnership said that another church in the city, the Dominican Al-Saa’a church which dates to 1873, will also be rebuilt.

The reconstruction will be part of the agency-led “Revive the Spirit of Mosul” initiative. UNESCO says the reconstruction project will create jobs and provide further education, training, and experience for local young professionals and craftsmen.

The second largest city in Iraq, Mosul is the seat of two bishoprics in Iraq for the Chaldean Catholic and Syriac Catholic churches. Its Christian population fell from 35,000 in 2003 to only around 15,000 at the time of the ISIS invasion in 2014.

After the ISIS takeover of Mosul and the surrounding region, there were numerous reports of militants forcing Christians to convert to Islam, pay a tax, or be killed.

The Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch estimated that ISIS killed 500 people in its conquest; thousands were killed during the ISIS occupation and nearly one million people fled the city.

In 2016, a report by the Knights of Columbus and In Defense of Christians documented accounts by victims or witnesses of killings, rapes, and girls and women being forced into sex slavery. A separate U.N. report said that ISIS had abducted 800 to 900 children in Mosul and subjected them to religious and military training.

In March of 2016, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that ISIS was committing genocide against Christians, Yezidis, and Shi’a Muslims in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS was driven out of Mosul in 2017, but conditions in the city and in much of Northern Iraq remain tenuous for Christians.

Barely 40 Christians have returned to live in Mosul, according to Syriac Catholic priest Father Amanuel Adel Kloo, in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) from July of 2019. Around 1,000 other Christians commute into the city to attend the University of Mosul by day, but they leave the city at night due to continued fears of insecurity, he said.

In an April, 2019, interview with ACN, Archbishop Petros Mouche of the Syriac-Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul expressed concern at a lack of funds to rebuild homes in the region and “very few initiatives” for jobs.

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