The Voice of the suffering in Middle East

Bishops in Pakistan say that a recent Supreme Court decision is part of a cycle of injustice for victims of persecution. Bishops in Pakistan have spoken of their dismay after the country’s Supreme Court quashed the sentences of three men convicted of killing a Christian man and his pregnant wife, who were burned to death after being thrown into a brick kiln. In interviews with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishops Samson Shukardin and Indrias Rehmat ...

City authorities want religious organizations to be subject to the “Arnona.” A bishop explains why an exemption should continue to be granted. Israel’s municipal property tax, known as “Arnona,” has become the center of a new standoff between Churches and the municipality of Jerusalem. Christian leaders fear that challenging the exemptions enjoyed by certain ecclesiastical properties could compromise their religious, educational and social activities. In a conversation with Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), Bishop William Shomali, Auxiliary ...

Initially scheduled for March, the festival was postponed due to the conflicts that have affected the Middle East. The Pope has encouraged more than 700 young people who lived through Iraq’s jihadist occupation to be the light of the world. In a video shown on Wednesday, July 8 at the Ankawa Youth Meeting (AYM), Pope Leo XIV urged young believers to persevere in faith and become peacemakers despite the region experiencing conflict and instability. “You must be Christ’s light in ...

Camps take place in 11 different countries, with a particular focus on regions marked by war, displacement, and instability. After some 15 years of instability, civil war, and episodic persecution, Syria is a place where a “normal life” is no longer possible for many children. And that’s why summer camp can be a game-changer. Claude Semaan, coordinator of Faith and Light in Syria, an international movement fostering spiritual growth among people with disabilities, explains that for many kids, camps are ...

Iraq is no longer plagued by a jihadist group, but for Christians, evangelization is almost out of the question. Iraq is not the country it was in 2014, when the Islamic State group threatened Christians and other minorities as it sought to establish a caliphate. Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, the Chaldean archbishop of Erbil in northern Iraq, said in an interview that his country is much more stable than it was a dozen years ago and that Christians are free ...

Fr. Youssef Semaan looks on as the conflict in Lebanon empties his village and threatens decades of coexistence between Christians and Muslims. The war in southern Lebanon is damaging more than just infrastructure, as it causes profound changes to the social relations and human fabric of communities where Christians and Muslims live side by side, says Fr. Youssef Semaan, a Maronite parish priest. Fr. Youssef serves in Kfour, a village in the district of Nabatieh, where Christians and Muslims have ...