ACN News - Christ’s bounty in Damascus

By Archbishop Samir Nassar

Behind the scenes, quietly and discreetly, 82 women religious belonging to various congregations are serving the Church in Damascus. They are the great force, which, drawing strength from the breath of the Holy Spirit, gives life to charisms of the Gospel in a country torn apart by war. They do so without getting tired or being afraid.

Witness

Some of them are living in small communities, housed in the large schools they used to run but which were nationalized in 1968; others live in small hospitality centers or in modest apartments among the people, living a life of poverty, prayer and praise.

Listening to the most vulnerable

These consecrated religious are always at the ready to welcome and listen to the most vulnerable of the city’s residents. They provide for the most urgent needs, especially during these years of war and isolation. They store up, in their hearts, all the suffering and need of this vulnerable population, forgotten in their misery and insecurity. Defiant of powerlessness, these men and women religious put up a wall of lamentation with their love, ensuring a charitable presence among people who have lost everything.

Faces of compassion

The engagement of our beloved Sisters who serve families is made manifest by their presence at child-care centers, in schools, dispensaries, eating places, as well as catechetical and formation centers. Let us salute their heroic mission as they take care of the needs of the sick, the wounded and the aged, all of them burdened by war. Theirs is a pastoral vanguard.

The promise of a future

This ‘experimental’ mission of our dear Sisters remains focused on the schools, the formation of children and young people. This educational service transmits values of peace, tolerance and dialogue, all geared toward a destroyed homeland and the renewal of the Church. Let’s salute all the types of psychological support for the victims of war, especially the children, the young people, their lives wounded by violence, delinquency and exclusion.

Gratitude

This beautiful witness of light, hidden and barely known, doesn’t it deserve some gratitude and recognition? Dearly beloved consecrated women in Damascus, the Resurrected Christ will thank you and bless you!

Easter 2017

Archbishop Nassar is the Maronite ordinary of Damascus.

With picture of Syrian children (© ACN)

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

ACN News - Pray for Egypt’s Christians!

By Eva-Maria Kolmann

In the wake of twin terror attacks on two churches in Egypt that killed 44 people, Coptic Catholic Bishop Kyrillos William of Assiut called on Christians around the world to pray for the victims.

On Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017, two suicide attacks unleashed carnage in two Coptic Orthodox churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria. The strikes also wounded at least 120 worshippers.

"Prayer is the most important thing we can ask for at this time,” the bishop told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

The prelate said he was not entirely surprised at the new attacks, referring to bombing of the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Cairo last December, which killed almost 30 people.

"Our sense of security was not very strong,” Bishop Kyrillos said.

The bishop emphasized that both the government and the country’s Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic Churches will ramp up their collaboration to ensure the security of Christian places of worship.

The bishop said: "I was visited by a security official who asked me what we need now. He made the suggestion that we could train young people and adults, and that all resources could be pooled in order to increase security.”

“Here in Assiut there are 550 Christian churches. Thank God, nothing has happened here so far, but we are too little prepared for such events.”

Asked about the danger of an exodus of Christians from Egypt—as has been happening in Iraq and Syria—Bishop Kyrillos expressed the conviction that these attacks would not create any large-scale exodus of Christians from Egypt.

"In Egypt the people feel a close bond with their country and all of them see themselves as Egyptians – whether they are Christians or Muslims.”

“There is a stronger sense of solidarity among the population here than elsewhere,” he said, and the bishop suggested that the intention of the terrorists is to destroy this solidarity.

The bishop said that the visit of Pope Francis to Egypt, scheduled for April 28-29, 2017, is "more important now than ever.”

He is convinced that the trip will not be called off, since, he said, the Pope has already “shown the courage, precisely in such situations, to come and strengthen the people.”

Bishop Kyrillos expressed confidence that the Pope will send out a clear message of peace when he visits the country.

With picture of candles in a Coptic Orthodox Church (© ACN)

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org