The Meera’s look like any other family at the ethnically diverse parish of St. Anthony of Padua in Brampton, Ontario. They warmly greet fellow parishioners as they arrive for Mass, as if they have been here a lifetime. But just a few weeks prior, they were stuck in one of the most dangerous countries on ...read more

Below is the official text of the catechesis of Archbishop Bashar Warda, CSsR, catechesis, as delivered on Day 6 of the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. Archbishop Warda is the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil in Iraq. Introduction: Catechesis Today I am invited to present a catechesis on suffering. A catechesis is not just a preaching ...read more

Prayer Vigil to commemorate Iraqi Christians Victims St. Michael’s Cathedral Archdiocese of Toronto November 11, 2010 Address by Msgr. Yousif Habash, Syrian Catholic Bishop of the United States and Canada - [translation from Arabic vy Rita Sawaya] Msgr. Yousif Habash bishop of the Syro-Catholic communities of the United States and Canada issued a spontaneous emotional speech in Arabic, addressing the Iraqi people in Iraq and throughout the world. The vigil was organized and presided by Mgr. Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto. Over 500 people including 20 Christians religious leaders attended the prayer vigil for peace, held last November 11 at St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto on the day of commemoration of victims of Iraqi Syro-Catholic terrorist attack of October 31st in the Cathedral of Sayyidat an-Najat of Baghdad. The vigil was rebroadcast Saturday November 20th, 2010 on 20H30 on Salt and Light. Here is Mgr. Yousif Habash's moving speech in Arabic translated to English by Rita Sawaya. ...read more

This blog comes from Rita Sawaya, who was in Rome covering the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East last month. Fight or Flight Forced migration of Christians from the Middle East has now become the norm. It is now impossible for a growing number of Christians – who are now an even smaller minority ...read more

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A deadly militant siege of a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq, was a “savage” act of “absurd violence,” Pope Benedict XVI said. The pope urged international and national authorities and all people of good will to work together to end the “heinous episodes of violence ...read more

It is Saturday and we arrive to a house in a middle-class neighbourhood of west Amman. There is quite a crowd gathering for the day’s events. Inside, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary have a full-morning planned. In the back room there are dozens of children participating in an activity. They are all Iraqis displaced because ...read more