Middle East – Africa

Damascus, Syria, Mar 15, 2018 / 03:36 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Seven years ago, on March 15, 2011, the Syrian Civil War began. Since then, the conflict in Syria has forced more than 5.4 million people to flee their home country to neighboring nations, such as Turkey and Lebanon. An addition 6.1 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced. And more than 400,000 have lost their lives.

“More than 11 million Syrians – that is larger than the population of New York City – have had their lives torn apart and fled their homes due to this long, long war,” said Tom Price, communications officer at Catholic Relief Services, in an interview with CNA.

“Children, who make up more than half of Syrian refugees in the Middle East, are paying the heaviest price. Many have witnessed violence and the loss of homes or loved ones; the vast majority have been out of school for years,” Price continued.

The conflict began when demonstrations sprang up across Syria protesting the rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president and leader the country’s Ba’ath Party. In April of that year, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters.

Russia and Iran have been supportive of the Syrian regime, while western nations have favored some rebel groups.

The civil war is being fought among the Syrian regime and a number of rebel groups. The rebels include moderates, such as the Free Syrian Army; Islamists such as Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State; and Kurdish separatists.

Neighboring countries surrounding Syria have absorbed most of the Syrians fleeing the constant threat of death and destruction – a number which has now skyrocketed to the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis in the world.

“For years, countries in the Middle East have been hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees,” Price remarked, most of whom have landed in Turkey and Jordan, while others have fled to Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt.

Turkey has experienced the largest number of Syrian refugees over the years, mounting to around 3.3 million registered in total.

For those who have retreated to Lebanon, Syrians often struggle to make ends meet. An estimated 70 percent of refugees are now living below the poverty line and the country offers no formal refugee camps. There are nearly 1 million Syrian refugees in the country, whose population is little more than 6 million.

Refugees in Jordan are experiencing similar situations. Around 93 percent of Syrians are living below the poverty line outside of refugee camps in exile. Iraq is hosting around 246,000 Syrian refugees and Egypt has seen around 126,000.  

While life as a refugee is arduous, those who have decided to remain in their war-torn country are experiencing different hardships, under the constant threat of violence – mostly living in areas controlled by the government.

However, Price noted that CRS is advocating with the U.S. to continue its efforts in expanding humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in the Middle East, adding that ending the civil war should be the ultimate goal.

“Most importantly, the United States should lead concerted diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in Syria,” Price said.

“Catholic Relief Services echoes the message of Pope Francis, who has pleaded for an end to the violence and the peaceful resolution of hostilities in Syria,” he continued.

UNHCR, together with other UN agencies, also noted that they have appealed the U.S. for $8 billion in funding for refugees in Syrian and surrounding locations.

Kim Pozniak, the director of communications at CRS, also said that their organization is working with “the bishops and Catholic Charities to assist those who’ve had to leave their homes and addresses root causes of migration in many countries, so more people do not have to migrate.”

As the years of conflict have passed, Syria is still seeing severe fighting, particularly in eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, and along the Turkish border, with no end in sight.

While the war rages on, Pozniak noted the importance of not letting the violence become normalized over time, and urged Catholics around the world to support refugees through prayer and action.

“We’ve been called by Pope Francis to ‘share the journey’ with our brothers and sisters on the move due to violence and other hardships,” Pozniak told CNA.

“As Catholics, we must strive to overcome indifference to cries for help, especially in a crisis that’s lasted this long.”

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Jerusalem, Mar 14, 2018 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prominent Christian leaders in America co-signed a letter Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat asking them to reconsider a proposed plan to tax churc… […]

Abuja, Nigeria, Mar 12, 2018 / 10:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- With widespread violence plaguing Nigeria, Catholic religious sisters in the country have united in the name of peace to counter the mounting conflicts.

“The news of murders, massacres, … […]

Rome, Italy, Mar 3, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Martin Mosebach is the author of “The 21: A Journey into the Land of the Coptic Martyrs.” Walter Mayr, Rome correspondent of German magazine Der SPIEGEL recently interviewed Mosebach, and has authorized CNA to publish a translation of that interview.

Walter Mayr: Mr. Mosebach, your book “The 21: A Journey into the Land of the Coptic Martyrs” is about those Coptic Christians who were beheaded on a Libyan beach in 2015 by ISIS henchmen. Why did you choose this subject matter?

Martin Mosebach: The subject matter came to me when I saw a picture of one of those decapitated heads – it was a face expressing a peculiar peace, a peculiar trance. The picture then did not let me go and I decided to describe what the life of these 21 men was like before they were beheaded. And so I just headed out, I went to Upper Egypt and tried to learn more from the social circle of those executed.

What makes this particular case special for you, compared to other atrocities committed by ISIS?

Terrorist attacks are usually directed against people who have not been asked about their stance on religion. But these people were questioned by ISIS after over 40 days of imprisonment; and they stood by their religion, making this a less common case. After all, terror actually is predicated on the fact that it can strike anyone who can be called “innocent.” By the way, most ISIS victims are Muslims. Here, the victims, Christian Copts, were asked at gunpoint: “Do you stand by what you believe?”

Where did you see the entire video for the first time and how can one endure watching it?

I first saw the entire video, the unabridged version showing the actual decapitation, on the laptops of the relatives of the murdered. In El-Or, in Upper Egypt. In the cowshed, so to speak, or in the houses of the families. On YouTube you can now find a sanitized version. But there, in the community of brothers, the cousins, the fathers, this is considered with composure. And with pride. They will point to their relatives in the row of the beheaded, to their brother, and say, “this is our Samuel, this is our Abanoub.”

Is that what fascinated or astonished you most at the behavior of the victims and later of the bereaved?

I went to Upper Egypt with the image in mind that we have in the West of persecuted Christianity in the Middle East. Instead I encountered a strong, growing, large, determined church full of people who in no way appeared to be pushed up against the wall, but instead really perceived the martyrdom as a great triumph, just like in the first Christian centuries.

By “Growing Church” you mean to say that the number of Coptic believers is growing?

In any case, it is much larger than what we read about here in Germany, where there is talk of eight or nine percent of the Egyptian population. Although that also would be quite a lot of people, given there are 90 million Egyptians. The Coptic bishops, however, assert that the number is closer to 25 percent of the population. There are no official statistics though, as that is not in the state’s interest.

What is the everyday life of the Copts in Al-Sisi’s Egypt like?

There is persecution, there is also legal disqualification, a Copt can not obtain a leadership position, can not become general, broadcasting director, university rector, minister, and a Muslim may not obey a Copt. But that does not prevent this group from forming a state in the state, a community that holds its head up high. After all, there is no other place that the Copts could go – they have to stay, this is their home, they are the actual descendants of the Pharaohs. The Turkish approach of yesteryear, to completely dispel the Armenians and the Greek, can not work with this number of people. When I’m in a Coptic church, I don’t get the sense of being in an underground community. The churches built after Mubarak’s fall are huge, and the towers are sometimes higher than the minarets of the mosques.

Could the troubled Catholic Church, which you so often criticize, learn from the Coptic Christians?

Yes, that it could: namely, that one must proclaim the Faith, instead of hiding one’s cross on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, like Cardinal Marx did – a Copt could not do that, because he has his cross tattooed on the back of his hand, between his thumb and forefinger. The Jews were forced to wear the Star [of David] in Germany, the Copt fashions himself his own cross.

Whilst working there, did you ask yourself how you would behave, if you found yourself in such a situation?

But of course one asks oneself the question. I realized that this is a challenge I too would have to face. Whether I would live up to it is another matter.

What role does Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi when it comes to the Copts and religious conflicts in general?

This man is not to be envied for his office.

Are you being serious?

He ousted the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood representative, President Mursi, now there is a military dictatorship and, among the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, seething rage over this act of violence against a democratically elected head of state. This anger is also directed against the Copts, many of whom of course do rely on the dictatorship, since Mursi wanted to largely deprive them of their rights.

That sounds like Sisi is the lesser evil for the Copts.

Yes, but he makes himself the mortal enemy of a large part of his own people. For example, in the village of El-Or, the construction of a cathedral for the Copts was personally promoted by Sisi himself. He also personally attends mass at Christmas, Easter, as well as requiems. He is trying to stabilize things, trying to keep a lid on this explosive pressure cooker.

You are likely to draw criticism from conservatives that your book avoids pointing out the perpetrators clearly enough, given how it eschews the “Islamic State” stereotype.

Islamism was less interesting to me in this particular case. What mattered to me was the role of martyrdom. It is inseparable from the Christian message.

 

Anian Christoph Wimmer translated this interview from German.

 

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Abuja, Nigeria, Mar 2, 2018 / 12:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid ongoing violence and attacks against human dignity in Nigeria, the Catholic bishops of the country released a pastoral communique promoting a culture of life within the Church and nation. &… […]

Denver, Colo., Mar 1, 2018 / 05:00 am (CNA).- Rannah Evetts had always wanted to go to Africa. She has no explanation for it, other than that God had planted a deep love of everything Africa in her heart for as long as she can remember.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I would say I was going to Africa, and I didn’t really understand why, and my mom would just call me her little African child because that’s all I would talk about,” Rannah recalled.

Today, Rannah is living out her childhood dream, having founded a Catholic school for deaf children in Uganda at the age of 21.

But it came to fruition in a way she could never have imagined.

Evetts loved to talk about Africa as a little girl. But there was a lot she did not talk about – the sexual abuse she was experiencing and the traumatic consequences she suffered silently for years: depression, suicidal thoughts, self hate and despair.

“Through a lot of hurt and pain that God worked through me,” Evetts told CNA.

Desperately seeking happiness in high school, she threw herself into the party scene, looking for relief.

“I wanted to be happy, I was so tired of hating myself and being miserable, and so when I was a junior in high school I started partying a whole lot…and I quickly realized this isn’t making me happy, I’m just suffering more and more,” she said.

Looking for answers, Evetts started attending different churches with friends and family on the weekends.

Having never been baptized, she bounced around non-denominational Christian churches for a while, but did not feel like she had found the truth until she began looking into the Catholic faith.

“When I was a senior I started RCIA…and through all of that, I gave up drinking, no more parties, I was reading the Bible all the time, and realizing that I just want Jesus. He has to be the cure, because I knew that the world wasn’t,” she said.

When she was baptized at the end of her senior year, Evetts said she felt the presence of Christ, in an indescribable way, in her heart. She felt God calling her to an unfolding mission that would piece together seemingly unconnected parts of her life, including her love for Africa, and her knowledge of American Sign Language.

“It’s hard to explain the real presence that I experienced of Christ inside of me when I did get baptized…and receiving the Eucharist, receiving him in the flesh, I gave up everything, that’s when he opened up the door and said ‘This is what I want you to do and this is why.’”

At her high school in Texas, the only classes offered to fulfill language requirements were Spanish or ASL. Evetts said she joined the sign language class because it was required, she thought it was “cool”, and her sister had taken the same class.

“It was just a requirement, I did not think ever one time that I would do anything with it,” she said, and she even considered dropping the class.

But by her senior year, and as she experienced a conversion, she said God began to pull on her heart through her sign language class, especially when she completed a project on deafness in Uganda.

She learned that the deaf in Uganda are often misunderstood and often mistreated, considered sinners or even cursed. She said that the deaf are often outcast out of malice or because of a lack of resources.

“I relate to the deaf people here because they are outcasted, they’re seen as cursed, they’re seen as sinners, and so they’re shut away from the world kind of, they’re living in this darkness and this silence,” she said.  

“And God pulled me to give what he gave me after all of my years of darkness and hating myself and feeling like I had no friends and nobody to talk to, of wanting to die, feeling like I had no purpose in life – all of those things I was struggling with after being sexually abused, God took them and he transforms everything and he said, ‘These I’m turning into graces.’ And with the deaf people here that’s what he did,” she said.

After high school graduation, Evetts flew to Uganda for the first time to work for seven months for an established school for the deaf in the capital city of Kampala. Through that experience, she met a priest in a village in northern Uganda, in an area with hundreds of deaf children and no resources for them.

“I basically just walked back to the sacristy and I was like, ‘Hi Father, I’m Rannah, can I talk to you?’” she recalled.

The initial meeting sparked a conversation that continued for more than a year and a half, while Evetts, the priest, and the local bishop discerned h starting a school for the deaf.

In 2016, Evetts moved to the village for five months to get used to living in the area and adjust to the culture, and to see if her dream could become a reality. By September 2016, the local bishop gave her permission to use an old catechesis building, “and basically he just said ‘begin.’”

By February 2017, the St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf opened its doors for the first time. St. Francis was chosen as the patron because he personally developed a sign language to preach the Gospel and teach the Catholic faith to Martin, a deaf man.

“We are here to promote the education and welfare of the Deaf in the West Nile region,” the school’s mission statement says on their website.

“Most importantly we are here to fulfill a deeper meaning behind Christ’s “Eph’phatha” in Mark’s Gospel: ‘… and looking up to heaven, he [Jesus] sighed, and said to him, “Eph’phatha,” that is, ‘be opened.’ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke plainly.’”

“The deaf are often outcasts in Ugandan society; isolated, deprived of their rights, and looked down upon by hearing people. They are more exposed to being raped, abused, and neglected by society. They are often thought of as stupid, cursed, and many parents still think it is a waste of money to send them to school,” the statement continues.

“We are here to break this cultural stigma, provide quality education, and give our Deaf students the most precious thing in this world: Jesus Christ.”

Evetts said she was most moved by her love for God to give language to those who otherwise could not speak.

“I didn’t think I would do anything with [sign language], but it’s like everyday [God] reveals more and more why I’m doing what I’m doing,” she said.

“I knew I wanted to evangelize, I knew I wanted to share the word of God with people and what he did in my life. It’s so huge what he did for me, that you can’t not share that with people! I’m a convert and I’m on fire, you know? It’s like, ‘no, I’ve been to the other side, trust me!’”

But it hasn’t been easy. The school is open to children ages 3-14, and the age range brings a variety of needs. When they first arrive, most of the children  have no way of communicating their needs, their thoughts, their experiences, pain or ideas.

“All of a sudden they’re being thrown into this and they have no idea what’s going on, so we have kids who are trying to run away, a lot of our kids just cried seeing me because they’ve never seen whatever I am, and the everyday challenge of bringing them a language…it was incredibly difficult,” Evetts said.

It also came with times of personal darkness and challenge for Evetts, who was the only foreigner in her village, the only woman living at the parish, and the only person from her culture in the area. She would also often feel overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility on her shoulders.

“I have a lot of thanks to give to my mom, because I would tell her ‘I want to come home Mom, because I don’t know what I’m doing,’ and she would stick with me and pray with me,” she said.

She was also still struggling with anxiety attacks and the painful healing of the abuse in her past.

“I want to tell you this because…it shows God’s goodness, because there were days when I couldn’t do this. I’m 22 years old and I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m the leader of all of this thing and I’m working in another country and having my own problems… that I’m dealing with and alone in that silence with God,” Evetts said.

There were several weeks at a time where she felt like she was literally unable to get out of bed in the morning.

“But I want to share that with you because it shows that God did this. You say ‘yes’ to God and he does it, he fulfills it, because this is his school and this is his mission,” she said. “I don’t know how to explain it, but he’s here and he’s got this all under control.”  

The transformation she and the staff began seeing in the students throughout the year was incredible, she said.

Children came to them having been raped, abused or neglected because of their disability, and were transformed in personality and behavior as they started acquiring a language.

At the beginning of the year, many parents reluctantly sent their children to the boarding school, believing it impossible to educate a deaf child. But on the night after the first term ended, and the children went home for the first time, parents started calling the school in amazement.

“They were like, ‘there’s stuff written in [their notebooks]! There’s grades!’ And then their kids are signing all this stuff to their parents, and these parents are like ‘we don’t know what our kids are saying but they know stuff, and they’re talking with their hands!’”

“And so they’re really seeing the evidence of this works, so its a real encouragement for the parents,” Evetts said.

The school has just begun its second year, with 50 students enrolled. It was recently licensed, and the plan is to eventually find enough land to build a boarding school for more than 300 nursery and primary school deaf students in the area.

Evetts said the way the local community has embraced the school with love has been encouraging. As the only white person in the area, Evetts said it automatically brings her a lot of attention, which in turn lets her bring that attention to her work with deaf children.

“God uses that, then I get to explain about sign language and about deafness and how awesome it is. We’re walking around town, playing games with the students, using sign language, and people just gawk and stare–like what? White people know this language too?” Evetts said. “This year I’ve had volunteers come and it’s more people knowing sign language and giving it attention, and Caritas is now helping sponsor our school, so it’s just been growing and I see that the community has really taken us on, and it really has been great.”

Evetts said the most rewarding part of the experience has been how God has used her ‘yes’ and the ‘yes’ of her staff members to transform lives and to do something that they would be unable to accomplish without him.

“The closer you get to God in his silence, that’s where he reveals himself, that’s his language,” she said. “And not only that, he reveals you to you–he draws that out of you, and I really learned that the closer I came to him, he just showed me – ‘this is why I put this desire in you, and this is how I’m going to use your sufferings or your vices and this is how I’m going to transform it.’”

“It was all him.”

 

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Kano, Nigeria, Feb 28, 2018 / 12:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With 110 girls still missing after terrorist group Boko Haram attacked a technical college in Nigeria last week, a priest in the region says “deep sorrow has descended on the once sleepy&he… […]

Jerusalem, Feb 27, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Christian leaders are re-opening the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the city backtracked on proposals seen as targeting Christianity in the region.

On Sunday, Catholic, Greek Orthod… […]

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Feb 26, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Four Congolese protesters were shot dead Feb. 25, during demonstrations organized by Catholics protesting President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down from power.

The casualties occurred just two days after a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, called for by Pope Francis.

An additional 47 people were wounded and more than 100 arrested in the Sunday protests, according to the United Nations mission in Congo.

Many of the demonstrations occurred in and around Catholic churches in the DRC. Some priests chose to hold protests within the parameters of their parish grounds to minimize violence.

“Security forces blocked the roads around the churches. They came in and threw tear gas canisters into churches. They used live ammunition,” Father Jean Claude Tabu, Curate of the St. Benoît Parish in the north of Kinshasa, told La Croix. This is the third round of demonstrations organized by the Catholic Lay Committee. Previous protests on Dec. 31 and Jan. 21 left over a dozen dead.

“I note with sorrow and deep concern the loss of life and injuries that occurred at the hands of those who are supposed to protect life and the rule of law.  I add my voice to that of the Holy Father in his call for calm and peace in the country,” wrote Archbishop Timothy Broglio, chair of U.S. Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, in a Feb. 14 letter to the bishops of Congo.

The Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has strongly advocated for free and fair elections in the country that has faced decades of political instability.

The Congolese Catholic Bishops’ Conference have called upon President Kabila to state that he will not run for an illegal third term as president. Kabila was supposed to leave office in December 2016, but elections have been continually postponed.

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Jerusalem, Feb 26, 2018 / 02:31 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been closed indefinitely to protest two proposals that Christian leaders see as targeting the presence of Christianity in the region.

Catholic, Gree… […]