News
Byzcath.org News provides news focusing on the Christian East from varous sources and offers links to other sites dedicated to providing the news about the Church.
Churches and organizations that provide news about the Eastern Churches are invited to submit their news stories to us for publication here (use the contact page for submission)..
Materials from the Vatican Information Service, Zenit, CWNews.com and other sources are published here with permission of their owners but may not be republished further without the permission of their original publishers. Please visit these sites to obtain additional general news about the Church. In addition to these sources EWTN News also provides a good general news summary.
Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
- Details
Accepting the invitation presented by His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč of the Ukrainians, on Sunday 28 January at 16.00 the Holy Father Francis will visit the Basilica of Saint Sophia in Rome and will meet with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic community.
- Details
vatican.va - The Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar major archiepiscopal Church, after accepting the resignation from the pastoral care of the eparchy of Idukki of the Syro-Malabars, India, presented by H.E. Msgr. Mathew Anikuzhikattil and after receiving prior pontifical assent for the candidates to the episcopate, has elected as bishop of the same Eparchy the Rev. John Nellikunnel, currently dean of the faculty of philosophy at Saint Joseph’s Pontifical Seminary, Mangalapuzha.
Rev. John Nellikunnel
Rev. John Nellikunnel was born on 22 March 1973 in Kadaplamattom, in the eparchy of Palai. After attending Saint Joseph’s minor seminary in Kothamangalam, he took the institutional courses in philosophy and theology at the Saint Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Vadavathoor. He was ordained a priest on 30 December 1998, and he then exercised his ministry in various parishes. He was sent to Rome for higher studies, obtaining a licentiate and doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas. Returning home, he held the following offices: eparchial chancellor, secretary to the bishop, director of catechesis and the biblical apostolate, and professor and subsequently dean of the faculty of philosophy at Saint Joseph’s Pontifical Seminary, Mangalapuzha.
- Details
www.churchinneed.org - IN MOSUL, Iraq’s second largest city, Christmas bells rang out again this year for the first time in four years. During the preceding years this once so familiar sound had no longer been heard. Now, thanks to the ouster of ISIS from the city, Christians were able to celebrate Christmas Mass in the church of Mar Boulus (Saint Paul) in the Al-Mundshen suburb of Mosul.
However, the joyful event almost didn’t happen. Right up until Christmas it had been nearly impossible for Christians to clean their church in Mosul. But then a group of young Muslims took the initiative, helping with the clean-up and even re-erecting the cross; in a sign of reconciliation, the Muslims also invited all Christians in the region to celebrate Christmas in Mosul.
Ranking prelates from various Churches celebrated the liturgy in Mosul especially for 400 displaced Christian families. The proceedings were led by Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako and Bishop Shlemun Warduni of Babylon, Shlemun Warduni—both Chaldeans); the Syriac Catholic Archbishop Youhanna Moutros Moshe of Mosul, and the Syriac Orthodox Bishop Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf. Also among the guests of honor were the presidents of the universities of Mosul und Nineveh.
While most displaced Christians from Mosul are still living in Kurdistan, the first 60 families have recently decided to return to Mosul, reported Patriarch Sako. “The efforts of the Churches to recreate a stable and peaceful environment for the local population have borne further fruit,” said Father Andrzej Halemba, who oversees Middle East projects for our organization.
“Let us hope that the light of Jesus may shine in people’s hearts and bring light to our wounded world,” said the Dominican Father Najeeb Michaeel, who referred to this special Christmas service as one of the absolute highlights of recent months.
In 2003, there were some 1.3 million Christians in Iraq, accounting for approximately 8% of the total population. Today their number has fallen to only around 250,000, representing less than 1% of the population. Until recently there were no Christians left in Mosul, since they were all forced to flee when ISIS captured the city in June 2014.
Our organization is currently working to encourage Christians to return to their former homes in Iraq. With a campaign entitled “return to the roots,” ACN is closely involved in an extensive program to rebuild the homes and churches of the uprooted Christians from the Nineveh Plains region, not far from the city of Mosul. Already a third of the Christian exiles have now returned to their homes on the Nineveh Plains. In its Christmas appeal ACN is continuing to call for donations to make possible the resettlement of Iraqi Christians in their ancient homeland.
—Karla Sponar
https://www.churchinneed.org/first-christmas-mass-mosul-since-2014/
- Details
By Robin Gomes
India-based Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (SMC) on Sunday inaugurated a new diocese that Pope Francis had announced last year to provide pastoral care to India’s SMC faithful living outside their existing dioceses. Shamshabad Eparchy in Telengana state, became the 31st diocese of the eastern rite Church on 7 January with a Holy Mass and ceremony that included the installation of its first head, Bishop Raphael Thattil.
The event was attended by 55 bishops from across India, including Cardinal George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, Cardinal Baselios Clemis, the head of the Syro-Malankara Church, Vatican officials and hundreds of priests, nuns and lay people from across the country.
Bishop Thattil the Auxiliary bishop of Trichur Archdiocese from 2010, has been serving as Apostolic Visitor since 2014 to SMC faithful outside existing dioceses. He told the gathering, “my ministry is to spread the gospel and it shall be done in communion with all.”
At Sunday’s inauguration ‘Premmarg’, a charitable trust was also launched.
Pope’s measures
In a letter to all the bishops of India dated 9 October 2017, the Pope had announced the creation of Shamshabad Diocese and appointed Bishop Thattil as its first bishop, restoring the ‘all India jurisdiction’ of the Syro Malabar Church.
The Holy Father also created the Diocese of Hosur and appointed as its bishop Fr. Sebastian (Jobby) Pozholiparampil, and extended the jurisdiction of the existing dioceses of Ramanathapuram and Thuckalay.
The territory of Shamshabad Diocese comprises 23 states excluding of the 30 already existing SMC dioceses out of which 14 dioceses are outside Kerala, covering two thirds of the country. Bishop Thattil will serve about 1,20,000 faithful spread across 100 cities in the country and has 11 functional churches and seven under construction with around 88 priests and a few hundred nuns.
Church in India
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) is the apex body of the Catholic Church of India, that comprises three ritual Churches: the Latin rite and two eastern rites – the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches, which claim their origin from St. Thomas the Apostle. Of the 172 dioceses in India, 132 belong to the Latin rite. The SMC also has four dioceses outside India in Australia, Britain, Canada and the US.
Fruitful harmonious cooperation among rites
In his letter to the Indian bishops, Pope Francis urged for “a fruitful and harmonious cooperation” among the bishops of the three ritual Churches of India, as they reach out to provide pastoral care to their respective faithful spread out in various parts of the country.
The Pope noted problems and tensions among the ritual dioceses due to overlapping jurisdiction. “In a world where large numbers of Christians are forced to migrate,” he said, “overlapping jurisdictions have become customary and are increasingly effective tools for ensuring the pastoral care of the faithful while also ensuring full respect for their ecclesial traditions.” “In India itself, overlapping jurisdictions should no longer be problematic, for the Church has experienced them for some time, such as in Kerala,” the Pope wrote.
The smaller Syro-Malankara Church already has the provision to provide pastoral care to its faithful throughout India. Pope Francis has now extended the provision also to the Syro-Malabar Church.
- Details
NATIVITY MESSAGE
of
The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill
to the
Archpastors, Pastors, Deacons, Monks and Nuns,
and All the Faithful Children of the Russian Orthodox Church
Beloved in the Lord archpastors, all-honourable presbyters and deacons, God-loving monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters!
From the depths of my heart I congratulate you on the great feast of the Nativity of Christ – the feast of the birth in the flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ from the Holy Spirit and Most Pure Virgin Mary. Today we call upon all people, together with the Church, to glorify the Creator and Maker with the words: “O all the earth, sing ye unto the Lord” (heirmos of the First Ode of the Canon for the Nativity of Christ).
The all-beneficent God who loves his creation sends down his Only-Begotten Son the awaited Messiah so that he may accomplish the cause of our salvation. The Son of God, “which is in the bosom of the Father” (Jn 1:18), becomes the Son of Man and enters our world so that through his blood he may deliver us from sin and so that the sting of death should never inspire fear in the human person.
We know that the Magi who bowed down before Christ brought him gifts. What gift, then, can we bring to the Divine Teacher? The very gift which he asks of us himself: “Give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways” (Prov 23:26). What does it mean to give one’s heart? The heart is a symbol of life. If it ceases to beat, then we die. To give one’s heart to God is to dedicate our whole life to him. This dedication does not require that we renounce all that we have. We are merely called upon to remove from our hearts that which is an obstacle to the Divine presence within it. When all our thoughts are taken up with our own ego, when there is no room in our hearts for our neighbour, then there is no room for the Lord too. The presence of our neighbour in our heart depends mainly upon our capability to feel another’s pain and respond to it with deeds of mercy.
The Lord requires that we “observe his ways.” To observe the ways of God is to see the Divine presence in our lives and in human history: to see the manifestations of both Divine love and his righteous ire.
The past year for our people was replete with reminiscences about the tragic events of the twentieth century and the incipient persecution of the faith. We recalled the great spiritual exploits of the new martyrs and confessors who steadfastly bore witness to their fidelity to Christ. Yet even at that terrible time for our country, the Lord bestowed his mercy: after an enforced two hundred year rupture, the Office of Patriarch was revived in the land of Russia, and the Church, at a time of tribulation, found in the person of the holy bishop Tikhon, who was elected First Hierarch, a wise and courageous pastor, through whose ardent prayers before the Throne of the Most High Creator our Church and people were able to pass through the crucible of trials.
Today we are undergoing a special period: afflictions have not yet left this world, every day we “hear of wars and rumours of wars” (Mt 24:6). Yet how much of God’s love is poured out upon people! The world exists in spite of the forces of evil, while human love and family values abide in spite of the unbelievable attempts to destroy, desecrate and distort them. Faith in God is alive in the hearts of the majority of people. And our Church, in spite of decades of persecution in the recent past and the endeavours to undermine her authority in the present, remains and shall always be with Christ.
We believe that after undergoing the current trials, the peoples of historical Russia will preserve and renew their spiritual unity, will prosper materially and socially.
The Nativity of Christ is the central event of human history. People have always sought out God, yet the Creator – the Triune God – revealed himself as fully as possible to the human race only through the incarnation of his Only-Begotten Son. He came into a world of sin to make people worthy of the beneficent will of the heavenly Father and lay a firm foundation to the world in leaving this precept: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (Jn 14:27).
May this year be for our people, for the peoples of historical Russia and all the nations of the earth, a year of peace and prosperity. May the Divine Infant, who has been born in Bethlehem, help us to find hope that overcomes fear, and through faith feel the power of Divine love which transforms the life of people.
Amen.
/+ KIRILL/
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
- Details
Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - A mortar shell hit the Bab Tuma area on Monday, January 8, in the old city of Damascus where several churches are concentrated, causing massive damage to the Latin Catholic parish of the Conversion of Saint Paul, entrusted to the pastoral care of the Franciscan friars. The side and the roof of the church were damaged, the windows were broken and the systems used to heat the parish were also damaged. The mortar shells also caused damage to the adjacent Maronite cathedral, built in 1865.
The Archeparchy of Damascus of the Maronites, led by Archbishop Samir Nassar, counted over 20,000 baptized in 2013.
The mortar shells launched against the Old City of Damascus represent yet another confirmation that the conflict in Syria is still ongoing and continues to affect even peripheral areas of the capital. In recent days, local sources contacted by Fides confirmed the news of air raids carried out in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, on areas still in the hands of anti-Assad groups. While Syrian official sources report that in the early hours of today, Tuesday, January 9, Israel implemented an attack on Syrian territory with the use of aircraft and missiles, aimed at hitting a Syrian military base near Katifa, eastern suburb of Damascus. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 9/1/2017)
- U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Chairman Calls for Renewal of Prayers for Coptic Brethren After Latest Attacks in Egypt
- A bloody New Year in Egypt as two Coptic brothers killed
- Grand imam condemns attacks on Coptic Christians, calls on Muslims to celebrate Christmas in solidarity
- Presiding in charity: Ecumenical dialogue looks at pope’s role