"Let us prepare the way for the Lord who is to come – and if we perceive that our own life is clouded over and we do not clearly see the light that shines forth from Bethlehem, from Jesus, then now is the time to remove the obstacles."

“There is no hope here. The situation gets worse every day,” says the father, whose eyes are sunken. The mother adds, “The only thing I ask God for every day is that He protect my children and provide them with something to eat.”

“Just as Mass was finishing, we heard the first gunshots. The bandits soon realized that their guns couldn’t kill people quickly enough, so they lit dynamite and threw that into the crowd,”

According to ACN’s project partners, the two women killed were Samar Anton and her mother Nahida. Both were fatally injured when they tried to get to safety in a parish building. The Latin Patriarchate said that the snipers were Israeli military, which the Israel Defense Forces have denied.  

“The idea that politics corrupts has led to a situation where even countries with a great number of Catholics are bereft of politicians who can reflect Christian values.”

In both countries, clothes are almost unobtainable. Sister Annie Demerjian of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, who has worked on this project with ACN for years, laments, “Many families here can only dream of new clothes! These days, to buy a pair of trousers, a shirt, and shoes in Syria, you need two months of minimum wage.”