Posts Tagged

Iraq

By Doreen Abi Raad Catholic News Service  BEIRUT — Mideast Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs denounced the “total international silence” on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and called for Muslim religious authorities to issue fatwas, or legal edicts, banning attacks against Christians and “other innocents.”

Displaced people are seen resting on the ground at an area in Duhok, Iraq, Aug. 7. Given the "grave situation in Iraq," Pope Francis has asked Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, to travel to the region to meet church and government officials, but especially to meet Christians chased from their homes by militants of the Islamic State. (CNS photo/courtesy Christian Aid Program) See MIDEAST-PATRIARCHS, POPE-IRAQ and IRAQ-PRAYER Aug. 8, 2014.
By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Given the “grave situation in Iraq,” Pope Francis has asked Cardinal Fernando Filoni to travel to the region to meet church and government officials, but especially to meet Christians chased from their homes by militants of the Islamic State.

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service  WASHINGTON — Syriac Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan, in Washington to meet with federal government representatives and members of Congress, decried the “mass cleansing” of Christians from Mosul, Iraq, by what he called “a bed of criminals.”