Bishops propose Arab World Youth Day for Middle East Catholics

Cardinal Pietro Parolin (middle) and apostolic nuncio in Kenya and South Sudan, Archbishop Hubertus van Megen (left), are received in the Diocese of Rumbek by Bishop Christian Carlassare (right) on Aug. 17, 2023. / Credit: Father Erick Wanyonyi … […]

Rocket shells are left on the grass outside a house where civilians and soldiers were killed by Hamas militants days earlier, Oct. 11, 2023 in Be’eri, Israel. / Credit: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2023 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

An Israeli man told EWTN News this week that his niece is among those who were kidnapped by Hamas, stating that Israeli citizens are “strong” and “resilient” but admitting that his family is struggling with “unbearable” thoughts of the young woman’s captivity. 

Elad Levy told “EWTN News Nightly” host Tracy Sabol on Monday that his 19-year-old niece Roni Eshel was last heard from on Saturday, Oct. 7, just prior to the beginning of the attacks.  

“We saw the attacks. We went to our shelters and went to our safe rooms here where we live,” he said. “There was a barrage of rockets like we haven’t seen — I have never seen something like it in terms of the quantity in the areas that it spanned.” 

“And the last time that we heard from Roni was at 9:30 a.m.,” he said, describing his niece as a “typical” teenager who likes Taylor Swift and who is fun to be around.

Asked by Sabol if the family has received “any confirmation” of the young woman’s whereabouts, Levy said they have not confirmed her location but believe she was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and is being held in Gaza.

“Her parents on Sunday, just after the Oct. 7 attacks that Saturday, went to all the hospitals in Israel, and we couldn’t find her as well,” he said. “And we got a formal notice that she is missing. We are under the belief that she’s hostage in Gaza, held by the Hamas terrorists.”

Levy said Eshel and her mother exchanged brief texts before the former’s disappearance. “Mom, don’t worry, I’m okay,” he said Roni Eshel wrote. “Her mother replied, ‘I love you.’ And she said again, ‘Don’t worry. I’m okay. I love you.’”

Asked what the family’s biggest concern is as it awaits word from Eshel, Levy said it was “a very difficult question to answer.” 

“I think we’re concerned,” he said. “Where is she now? Is she hurt? If Hamas, you know, holds her — you’ve seen these terrorists, what they are capable of. I’m sure you’ve seen all the videos, the cruelty, the brutality, the savageness.” 

“And so being held by this group of terrorists, it’s unbearable thinking,” he said.

The Israeli people “can’t sugarcoat it,” Levy said. 

“You know, 1,300 people are believed to be dead right now,” he said. “It touches every family. I heard that a good friend of mine from high school was confirmed dead;  another friend of mine, his son was confirmed dead. So it touches everybody.”

“At the same time, you know, we’re resilient people,” he said. “We are very strong, the spirit is high with that respect. And for the coming days, we’re ready for everything.” 

“We trust our troops, we trust our military, our army, to finish and to do the job,” he said. 

The full interview with Levy on “EWTN News Nightly” can be viewed below.

[…]

CNA Staff, May 18, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Christians in Nigeria faced escalating persecution and a mounting death toll in the first four months of 2020, a new report has said.

In a report issued on 15 May, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) said that 620 Nigerian Christians have been killed since the beginning of the year, and mapped a campaign of destruction and arson carried out against churches in the African nation.

The society, a non-profit founded in 2008 in Nigeria, works to promote civil liberties, the rule of law, criminal justice reform, and good governance. Its report said that “Nigeria’s main Islamic Jihadists: Militant Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram/ISWAP have intensified their anti-Christian violence in the old Middle Belt and Northeast regions.”

“The atrocities against Christians have gone unchecked,” the report said, “with the country’s security forces and concerned political actors looking the other way or colluding with the Jihadists.”

Intersociety said that, despite making up nearly half of the country’s population, some 32,000 Christians have been killed in Islamist attacks since 2009.

Christians in Nigeria have been the victims of an escalating series of attacks, including kidnappings for ransom, since the beginning of the year.

In January this year, four seminarians were abducted by gunman from Good Shepherd Seminary. Ten days after the abduction, one of the four seminarians was found on the side of a road, alive but seriously injured. On Jan. 31, an official at the seminary announced that another two seminarians had been released, but that the fourth, Michael Nnadi remained missing and was presumed still in captivity.

It was subsequently announced that Nnadi had been killed.

In an interview from prison earlier this month, the leader of the gang which abducted Nnadi took credit for his killing, telling local media that the 18-year-old seminarian “continued preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and “told [his killer] to his face to change his evil ways or perish.”

In March, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, Nigeria, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the violence and kidnappings in a homily during Mass with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.

“We need to have access to our leaders; president, vice president. We need to work together to eradicate poverty, killings, bad governance and all sorts of challenges facing us as a nation,” Kaigama said.

In an Ash Wednesday letter to Nigerian Catholics, Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of Benin City called for Catholics to wear black in solidarity with victims and pray, in response to “repeated” executions of Christians by Boko Haram and “incessant” kidnappings “linked to the same groups.”

Other Christian villages have been attacked, farms set ablaze, vehicles carrying Christians attacked, men and women have been killed and kidnapped, and women have been taken as sex slaves and tortured—a “pattern,” he said, of targeting Christians.

On Feb. 27, U.S Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told CNA that the situation in Nigeria was deteriorating.

“There’s a lot of people getting killed in Nigeria, and we’re afraid it is going to spread a great deal in that region,” he told CNA. “It is one that’s really popped up on my radar screens — in the last couple of years, but particularly this past year.”

“I think we’ve got to prod the [Nigerian President Muhammadu] Buhari government more. They can do more,” he said. “They’re not bringing these people to justice that are killing religious adherents. They don’t seem to have the sense of urgency to act.”

[…]