Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of Maronite Catholics, appealed to the international community to work to end terrorism “that is killing and displacing families and depriving them of their rights and dignities.”
Middle East
Posted inPolitics & Society, Signs Of the Times
Fight for Mosul Drags On While Displaced Numbers Grow
Speaking from Baghdad on Dec. 14, Kevin Hartigan, Catholic Relief Services’ regional director for the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe told America that his team was bracing for what may be unprecedented numbers of people in flight from the contested city.
Posted inCurrent Comment, Faith
A free press is becoming near-impossible in Turkey
It is not a good time to be a journalist in Turkey.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
The future for Iraqi Christians has rarely looked grimmer
The struggle to liberate Mosul from ISIS militants has entered a third month of often savage combat.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
German churches denounce the arms trade in Yemen war
Government licenses and German arms exports had risen 96 percent in 2015 to a value of $13.6 billion, a priest said.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Evacuation begins in eastern Aleppo
Syrian TV showed live footage of a long convoy of ambulances and green buses driving out of Aleppo.
Posted inPodcasts, Politics & Society
Catholic Relief Services Prepares as Mosul Offensive Continues
As crises in Syria and Iraq reach a crescendo, Kevin Hartigan, Catholic Relief Services’ regional director for the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe, speaks from Baghdad about responding to families fleeing conflict in the region.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
How Mosul descended into darkness under ISIS
The woman’s killing in a public square was the cruelest moment in the descent of this once proud city.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
An Aleppo cease-fire collapses and with it, hope of evacuation
Activists and fighters trapped in the opposition’s last sliver of territory in Aleppo said pro-government forces had struck their district with dozens of rockets since mid-morning.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Syria to evacuate Aleppo in surrender deal
U.N. reports the safe withdrawal of people from the besieged area was now “imminent.”