Archbishop Bashar Warda: In Iraq, ISIS is gone, but Christians remain forgotten

Submitted by munir on Thu, 08/08/2024 - 10:04

Ten years ago, in the days following August 6-7, 2014, the city of Erbil in northern Iraq became one of the largest concentrations of internally displaced people on Earth. Driven eastward across the Nineveh Plain by ISIS terror, nearly one million Iraqis of all faiths found themselves fleeing for their lives through the blazing heat of the Iraqi summer.

 

Included among the violently displaced that summer were nearly 150,000 Iraqi Christians from some of the world’s most ancient Christian communities. Many of them ended up in the diocese where I am pastor.

Umm El-Jimal… added on UNESCO World Heritage List

Submitted by munir on Sun, 07/28/2024 - 15:56

From India, it was announced that Umm El-Jimal was added on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This is not something strange with relevance to the history of Umm El-Jimal, as it was a major center for the resting of caravans, hence the name "Umm El-Jimal" refers to those coming from the East to the Levant and the West, passing through the city of Petra, as many caravans were coming from India, the country from where this announcement was made days ago.

 

Holy Land: The Pontifical Mission is a mission of Divine Mercy

Submitted by munir on Thu, 07/25/2024 - 15:03

Among the great measures undertaken by the Catholic Church towards the oppressed and suffering people was the establishment of the Pontifical Mission in Palestine.

 

After UN General Assembly’s adoption of a plan for the partition of Palestine on 29 November 1947, renewed hostilities began between Arabs and Jews which brought affliction and anxiety to the heart of the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII. He asked for supplications “that the situation in Palestine may at long last be settled justly and thereby concord and peace be also happily established.”

 

Religion… and the participation in political life

Submitted by munir on Tue, 07/09/2024 - 13:38

Questions are being addressed nowadays, stating: “What is your role in the Church, and what is the role of the clergy in general in the upcoming parliamentary elections? For this reason, the Cultural Committee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, which is affiliated with the Latin Patriarchate in Tla’ Al-‘Ali, Amman, has held a panel discussion moderated by Dr.