For Mideast Catholics, church is anchor of hope amid violence
As the death toll in Gaza surpasses 1,000, violent demonstrations in the West Bank leave dead and wounded, and an entire Christian community is exiled from the Iraqi city of Mosul by Islamic extremists, Christians in the Holy Land find themselves facing harsh realities.
For some Catholics, the church and its tenets serve as an anchor of hope.
At the Church of St. Catherine, adjacent to Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, parishioners spoke of the struggle July 27. That day, parishes throughout the West Bank celebrated special Masses for Gaza, Iraq and Syria.