The Voice of the suffering and persecuted​

Faced with this “painful and outrageous” event, the provincial of the Clerics of Saint Viator uses terms such as “violence” and “anarchy” to describe the “dark hour” the country is experiencing.

They beat us during those phone calls. We were crying with the tension, while our parents listened over the phone. This routine continued for about two weeks. Every time we made the call, they beat us.

He was injured during the Syrian war, in 2012, when a staircase collapsed during a bombing, crushing his hands and much of his face.

“Some camp residents have suffered multiple displacements. Others have seen their loved ones slaughtered, shot at, and butchered like animals. We have staff who give psycho-social counselling to address their trauma.”

“One of the men took his machete and cut off my mother’s head. Her blood splashed on my face. I screamed.”

The Pope flagged “a polite and hidden persecution of Christians, no longer marked by terror and terrorist violence, but by a lack of regard for conscience and by pressure to live in ways that are opposed to moral values and to the sacred,”

“They put the Christians in cages, like animals. The first thing they did was forcefully convert us to Islam. … The warned us not to pray as Christians or we would be killed.”

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has committed to providing more than US$550,000 in aid to help Christians return to their apartments and houses, and support families with rent for temporary accommodation in the meantime.

The attackers left pamphlets and a banner claiming the attack and warning about future violent actions. “Every bullet you fire will be returned. Temucuicui resists.”

“Demonstrations of popular piety such as the Way of Cross or processions have been forbidden and can no longer go from parishes out into the streets, as has always happened before.”