Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Among the disasters that mark a devastating winter of war in Syria can now be added the progressive destruction of the environment, including small, previously protected wooded areas in Syrian Mesopotamia. Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Eustathius Matta Roham, titular of the Metropolitan See of Jazira and Euphrates, saw for himself the ruinous effects of the war in a recent visit to the National Park. “The poor Bedouin from the suburbs of Hassaké,” the Archbishop wrote, “have cut off the old trees there.” The “looting” for fuel took place, he said, “under the eyes of the guardians of the park,” who did not have the heart to intervene because of the obvious need to survive the cold weather. The deforestation and environmental damage, the archbishop said, are a side effect of a Syrian catastrophe that already includes “deaths, destruction, inflation, poverty, immigration, kidnapping.”

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV's offer to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine was motivated by a conviction that the two sides must start negotiating and stop the killing, the Vatican secretary of state said.
Rev. Paul Nicholson, S.J., begins his homily for the Ascension with a striking image from Medieval art: Jesus’ feet dangling in the air, his body swallowed by clouds.
PreachMay 27, 2025
In an interview with America's Gerard O'Connell, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington said that Pope Leo XIV would "carry forward" the legacy of Pope Francis' pontificate "in its essential elements."
Gerard O’ConnellMay 27, 2025
Pope Leo's quotation of Augustine after his election contains within it an important theological point about the nature of the episcopacy. The quotation signals Leo XIV’s approach to his role as bishop of Rome.