Three of four abducted Nigerian seminarians have been released

Aboard the papal plane, Mar 8, 2021 / 07:35 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Monday that the sight of the destroyed churches and ruins in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq left him speechless.

“When I stopped in front of the destroyed church, I had no words… beyond belief,” Francis said March 8.

Speaking to journalists during an in-flight press conference, the pope said that he had read about and seen pictures of the destruction in northern Iraq, but what he saw in person in Mosul and Qaraqosh was unimaginable.

The pope’s March 5-8 trip to Iraq brought him from Baghdad to the birthplace of Abraham and finally to the rubble-strewn city of Mosul, where the Islamic State declared its caliphate in 2014.

“But then what touched me most was the testimony of a mother in Qaraqosh,” Pope Francis said on his flight back to Rome.

“She is a woman who lost her son in the first Islamic State bombings, and she said a word: ‘forgiveness.’ I was moved.”

Pope Francis met Doha Sabah Abdallah, the mother who lost her son, in the Syriac Catholic Immaculate Conception Church in Bakhdida, also known as Qaraqosh. The town, 20 miles southeast of Mosul, was occupied by ISIS from 2014 to 2016.

Abdallah shared the story with the pope and those gathered in the church of the bombing of the town in August 2014 that killed her son, his cousin, and a young neighbor.

“Our strength undoubtedly comes from our faith in the Resurrection, a source of hope. My faith tells me that my children are in the arms of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we, the survivors, try to forgive the aggressor, because our Master Jesus has forgiven his executioners. By imitating him in our sufferings, we testify that love is stronger than everything,” the Iraqi woman said.

Reflecting on this moment during the in-flight press conference, Pope Francis said: “I forgive. This is a word we have lost. We know how to insult big time. We know how to condemn in a big way … But to forgive, to forgive one’s enemies. This is the pure Gospel. This hit me in Qaraqosh.”

The pope also reflected on his meeting with the father of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old who died in a shipwreck as his family tried to cross the Aegean Sea with other Syrian war refugees.

The pope said that the image of the deceased young boy “goes beyond a child who died in migration. It is a symbol of dying civilizations, which cannot survive. A symbol of humanity.”

The 84-year-old pope also noted that he had felt more tired during the Iraqi trip than on previous ones.

Recalling the final day of his trip, he said: “Yesterday, as we drove from Qaraqosh to Erbil, there were a lot of young people … many young people. And the question someone asked me was: ‘And these young people, what is their future? Where will they go?’ And many will have to leave the country, many.” 

About 60% of Iraqi’s population is under the age of 25. The unemployment rate for young people in Iraq is estimated to be 36%, with low oil prices, government waste, and corruption, and a poor security situation further hindering the country’s potential for economic growth.

The pope emphasized that migration must be “a double right” with a “right to not to emigrate and a right to emigrate.”

“But these people do not have either,” he added. 

The Christian population in Iraq has been steadily dwindling for decades, from around 1.4 million in 2003 to around 250,000 Christians in the country.

“Urgent measures are needed to ensure that people have jobs in their place and do not need to emigrate. And also measures to safeguard the right to emigrate,” the pope said.

Pope Francis expressed his gratitude to countries that have welcomed refugees and migrants, mentioning Lebanon and Jordan in particular.

The pope revealed that Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch, had asked him to add a stop in the country’s capital, Beirut, on his Iraq visit.

But Francis said that he had decided not to because he felt the country deserved a more substantial visit.

“I wrote a letter and made a promise to make a trip to Lebanon,” the pope said.

The photos within this story are from Pope Francis’ visit to Mosul March 7, 2021. Credit: Vatican Media.

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Worshippers attend a mass at Ouagadougou’s Catholic cathedral on June 12, 2022, in Burkina Faso. The country has been grappling with Islamist terrorism since 2015 and Christian communities live in fear of furhter attacks. / Credit: OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP via Getty Images

ACI Africa, Sep 5, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Two Catholic priests serving in the West African nation of Burkina Faso have spoken about the threats that terrorist groups pose to Christians in the country, saying the people of God there live in constant fear.

In a Sept. 2 press conference organized by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, Father Bertin Namboho, diocesan financial administrator of the Diocese of Nouna, and Father Jean-Pierre Koné, a parish priest in Tansila, shared their personal experiences in the country that has been grappling with Islamist terrorism since 2015.

“Since the onset of these attacks, we have witnessed our community being torn apart. The terrorists have blocked our city, destroying essential services. There is no electricity, no water, and the health system is reduced to a minimum. The situation is critical,” Namboho lamented.

“We now have about 5,000 people in our city who have fled from the villages. They have lost everything. Their husbands and fathers have been killed or disappeared, and we are struggling to provide for their basic needs,” he said.

The economic toll on the western town of Nouna is equally devastating, he said, adding that the destruction of infrastructure has disrupted local commerce, leaving residents without access to banks and essential services.

“The entire city has been under siege, with no access to food or medical supplies. The situation is extremely difficult for everyone,” the priest said. 

He recounted his personal experiences with the terrorists, saying that various encounters have instilled in him “profound fear.”

“During my travels for the church’s work, I have faced armed groups who question and threaten us. I was with nuns, and we were stopped and searched. It is terrifying to face such hostility and know that priests have been kidnapped and killed,” he recounted, adding: “We are constantly living in fear, unsure if we will survive each day.”

For his part, Koné, who has been serving in Tansila parish since October 2022, spoke about the escalation of violence across Burkina Faso over the years. 

Upon arriving in the town of Tansila, also in the western part of the country, Koné found the region already facing severe security challenges, he said. “The situation was tense from the beginning, but it has worsened progressively. The terrorists have targeted and destroyed all communication networks, cutting us off from the rest of the country.”

Koné recalled the devastating impact of the terrorists’ attacks on April 15, 2023, when more than 200 militants stormed Tansila. 

“They arrived in the evening and attacked the town with such force that residents had no time to gather their belongings. They looted everything — food, money, and even transportation means,” Koné recounted. 

He continued: “The destruction was immense. Our church, presbytery, and all our religious artifacts were vandalized. We returned to find everything in ruins.”

The psychological and spiritual impact of these attacks, he said, have been “profound.”

“The destruction of our church feels like the loss of our religious identity. It is as though we have been stripped of our dignity and our faith. The pain is not just physical but deeply spiritual. It raises questions about where God is in the midst of such suffering.”

Koné also spoke about the impact of the terrorist attacks on the local population, who he said is grappling with the loss of loved ones and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. 

“We celebrated a dark Christmas last year,” he said during the ACN press conference. “The attacks had left us in a state of panic and despair. Our communities are deeply scarred, and the suffering is unimaginable.” 

This article was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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Nairobi, Kenya, Jul 15, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Kenya’s high court is considering the state of health care in the country, as it hears a case brought on behalf of a young woman who died last month from complications which were related to a back-alley abortion she procured in 2014.

The girl, known by her initials JMM, was raped in 2014 at the age of 15. In December of that year, her guardian “received a call from a relative informing her that the former was vomiting and bleeding heavily at a local clinic where she had gone to seek treatment,” Akello Odenyo reported in The Standard, a Nairobi daily, May 28.

JMM had told clinic staff she had procured an unsafe abortion and that was sent to a variety of hospitals for post-abortive care.

In 2015, JMM’s mother, along with the Federation of Women Lawyers and the Centre for Reproductive Rights, filed a suit against the Ministry of Health claiming JMM was not provided with proper post-abortion care and calling on the government to provide access to safe abortions.

JMM developed kidney failure, and died June 10, 2018.

The 2010 Kenyan constitution made abortion legal in certain circumstances – in the cases of emergencies and when the woman’s health is in jeopardy.

Since then, Kenya’s health ministry “has withdrawn essential guidelines on conducting safe abortions and banned health workers from training on abortion,” according to Reuters.

The guidelines were removed in 2013 “after it emerged they were being used for unintended purposes,” according to the testimony of Dr. Joel Gondi, head of the Reproductive and Maternal Health Service Unit, The Star reported.

“The guidelines, amongst other things, provided clarity on who could perform abortions, safe-guarding against illegal practitioners,” reported Reuters. “The ban on training has meant fewer health professionals available to perform the procedure or after care.”

The suit filed on JMM’s behalf maintains that the poor care she received following her abortion was a result of the lack of safe abortion services. Petitioners seek the reinstatement of the abortion guidelines, and an end to the ban on training health workers on performing abortion.

The Ministry of Health reported in May that the country had spent 533 million Kenyan shillings ($5.29 million) treating complications from back-alley abortions.

Evelyne Opondo of the Centre for Reproductive Rights said that “While JMM was entitled to quality post abortion care irrespective of whether it was within the law or otherwise, she did not receive it from the point of first contact with the health system. Instead there were several delays and missed opportunities to mitigate the adverse effect of the unsafe abortion on her health and life.”

JMM’s mother said that her daughter’s death “was entirely preventable,” and maintained that “Kenya has to make abortion safe and accessible.”

The Kenyan high court heard three-day of testimony this week in the case. It has been adjourned until Sept. 18, and a verdict is expected before the end of the year.

Among the testimonies heard by the court was that of Dr. Wahome Ngari, who said that figures on the number of back-alley abortions procured, which are used to argue for the expansion of abortion rights, are wildly inflated.

Ngari said that a report by a reproductive health firm which had been cited in the court and which estimated 400,000 unsafe abortions in 2002 was inaccurage.

The physician said the correct figure was 140,000, The Standard reported.

Such inflation “was used in Malawi to push the Government to repeal their abortion law,” he told the court.

Ngari said the focus on health care for pregnant women in Kenya should begin with blood loss.

“The reason pregnant mothers die in the country is haemorrhage, followed by infections, hyperactive disorders, prolonged or obstructed labour and lastly abortion. Anyone who wants to offer a solution should follow that order.”

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