OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops and the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus are asking the Canadian government to make it a priority to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East and Africa, whom Pope Francis and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks say face genocide.
Mideast Catholic patriarchs encourage hope, joy amid suffering
BEIRUT - Catholic patriarchs from the Middle East encouraged their trouble people to find inner peace at Christmas and urged the world to remember them.
Canadian bishops seek help for persecuted Christians in Mideast, Africa
OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops and the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus are asking the Canadian government to make helping persecuted Christians in the Middle East and Africa, whom Pope Francis and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks say face genocide, a priority.
Thornhill parish beacon of hope for Mideast refugees
THORNHILL, ONT. - Every day Rami Kaai receives at least 50 phone calls from Christian refugees in the Middle East who plead for his help in coming to Canada.
Syriac patriarch says Western nations have betrayed Mideast Christians
BEIRUT - The head of the Syriac Catholic Church has accused Western governments of betraying Christians in the Middle East and said it was "a big lie" to suggest Islamic State could be defeated with airstrikes.
Persecution is a 'shared experience' that unites all Christians
VATICAN CITY - The persecution and martyrdom of Christians around the world have become "a shared experience" and a common journey that unites all who give witness to Christ, Pope Francis said.
Project Hope already making a difference for refugees
TORONTO - More than 105 refugee families fleeing unrest in the Middle East will be arriving in Canada in the next three to four months through the efforts of Project Hope.
Pope, synod join in prayers for peace in Middle East
VATICAN CITY - Gathered with a worldwide representation of bishops, including patriarchs and other bishops from the Middle East, Pope Francis dedicated the morning prayer of the Synod of Bishops on the family to pleas for peace in the Middle East.
Meeting in Jerusalem, European bishops call on nations to support migrants
JERUSALEM - Leaders of the European bishops' conferences expressed solidarity with people of the Middle East, especially those being forced from their homes, and called on European states to act generously, justly and respectfully toward the influx of migrants and refugees now reaching their shores.
Eyes wide open
Pictures of a dead three-year-old Syrian child washed ashore in Turkey made the world weep, but will little Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body move world populations and their governments to act?
Israeli Christian schools strike to protest cuts in public funding
JERUSALEM - Israel’s 47 Christian schools are entering the second week of an open-ended strike to protest ongoing cuts in government allocations, which they attribute to government discrimination against minority religious groups.
Cardinal says Britons seeing human face of suffering migrants
LONDON - Images of drowned refugees are causing the British people to cry out for a more generous response to the migrant crisis engulfing Europe, said an English cardinal.
Beware making Mideast Christians 'collateral damage,' patriarch warns
Updated 03/09/15
MARKHAM, ONT. - Christians in the Middle East should not be considered as collateral damage of the wars in Syria and Iraq, says Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II during his first apostolic visit to Canada.
VATICAN CITY - "Do something to put a stop to the violence and oppression," Pope Francis asked the international community after calling attention once again to the fate of persecuted Christians, especially in the Middle East.
OXFORD, England - French and British Catholic bishops urged their governments to settle a growing refugee crisis around the port of Calais, where highways have been blocked and migrants from Africa and the Middle East have died attempting illegal crossings of the Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel.