Catholic Online Forum

Christians in Aleppo are seeking information on the wellbeing of two priests, Father Michel Kayyal (Armenian Catholic) and Father Maher Mahfouz (Greek Orthodox), who were abducted on February 9 by a group of armed rebels on the Aleppo-Damascus road. So far, attempts to open channels and negotiations have failed.

Father Kayyal and Father Mahfouz were traveling aboard a public bus, heading to a facility operated by the Salesian order of Catholic priests in Kafrun, On the road to Damascus, 30 kilometres from Aleppo, armed men stopped the vehicle, checked the passengers' documents. Only the two priests were ordered to descend from the bus. The abductors took them away immediately.

To date 138,000 Christians have been forced from their homes, while systematically destroyed Christian churches
"They kill people. They are not interested in people's lives. "

With these dramatic words describing the situation in Syria Bishop Luke, who is serving in the Patriarchate Metropolitan Antiocheias.O at interview, reveals the persecution suffered by Ellinorthodoi the region since the outbreak of the uprising against the regime of Bashar Al Assad.

Especially in Homs has already occurred Christians slaughter hundreds of dissidents from the Muslim Brotherhood, while dozens of rapes and cases. "Our churches have suffered incalculable damage. The burn, break walls, plunder. Here we do not care about human lives, will be interested in our sacred spaces? Our parishioners beaten and accept violent attacks. Everything that happens "entitled" because of the insurgency and nobody reacts, "says Ellinorthoxos priest.

"Our ancestors came to this land long before Islam arrived here. Many saints were martyred in this land, preaching the love, "said Bishop, who despite the horrors Muslims called" Brothers. "And that case, since the Orthodox religion rejects intolerance towards other faiths.

And can the Church prescribes love and forgiveness, but the Greek government should not have intervened? As in many such cases, there appears to care for those people who keep alive the Greek culture, but the Orthodox faith. Shows no interest in drama and danger experienced by non-sympathetic to Muslim fanatics, Greek community in Syria.

Syria has been for long a bright spot for Christians in the Middle East.

The Christians had strong reasons to feel very pleased with it. And this because President Assad and senior government officials, showed significant temporal understanding about issues

The greatest danger for Christians in the Middle East was and is extreme Islam.

Today they have become totally defenseless against the Islamists, and live daily in a regime of terror, like sheep for slaughter ...

The pictures show the totalitarian disasters suffered by the church of St. George in Aleppo and cause painful impression of the extent of damage and the wrath of Islamists in the chaos of war in Syria, did not lose the opportunity to show once again the true face them.