Christians had been fleeing Iraq for years before the U.S. invasion in 2003. The ancient Assyrian Church of the East saw four-fifths of its members emigrate before 2000 and its ancient patriarchate transferred to Chicago. The government of Saddam Hussein persecuted the Assyrians because of their res

Pope and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew Pray Together Pope Benedict XVI and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople spent almost half an hour speaking privately March 6 before going into a small Vatican chapel to pray together. Although it was the patriarch’s first visit t

I know several Abrahams. Let me mention three, two living and one dead. Ibrahim A. works on the maintenance staff of Loyola Jesuit College on the outskirts of Abuja in Nigeria. A Jukun from Taraba state in northeastern Nigeria, Ibrahim is a Catholic, although many of his closest relatives belong to

Brazil experienced an economic boom in the late 1960s. With its gross national product growing handsomely at a rate of 7 percent to 8 percent, Brazil was praised by many development economists as an example of diversified, investment-led prosperity. But while the industries of Rio de Janeiro and Sã

Why did terrorists attack the United States The Kentucky farmer and writer Wendell Berry believes they were responding to U S corporate economic institutions that harm the poor and accept deadly pollution and global climate change as mere costs of doing business Michael S Northcott a priest of

It would be difficult to conjure up a more offensive tirade to ethnic Catholic ears than the one Barack Obama s pastor delivered after 9 11 about chickens coming home to roost Catholics do not have a monopoly on patriotism by any means but patriotism has a monopoly on the American Catholic mind

Preparing for the pope's visit

A religious seeker who found her home in the Catholic Church, Flannery OConnor once noted that stories are considered not quite as satisfying as statements, and statements not quite as satisfying as statistics; but in the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or its statistics, but by t

Chaldean Archbishop Kidnapped in Mosul Kidnappers abducted Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq on Feb. 29, and killed the three people who were traveling with him. Chaldean Bishop Rabban al Qas of Arbil told the Rome-based missionary news service AsiaNews that Mosul’