Scottish Catholic Observer

The most senior Catholic priest in Syria told the SCO this week that he is ready to ‘give my life for peace’ when he returns to his homeland.

The Damascus-based Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch, of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, was in Glasgow on Monday to address a special event organised by the charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) at Christ the King Church, King’s Park.

During an emotional Mass, the Patriarch told a full church that the situation in his homeland was truly desperate but that he still loved his country and felt no fear going back to a warzone as God was calling him to work for ‘peace and reconciliation.’

Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti of Glasgow, who celebrated the Mass on Monday, said it was a ‘great privilege’ to be present to hear the Patriarch’s ‘hugely important’ message of peace, which was underlined at the start of Mass when local school children laid pictures of kidnapped and murdered Syrian priests before the altar.

The event was arranged by ACN to mark the publication of its new report Persecuted and forgotten? which highlights the growing oppression of Christians all over the world, but especially in Syria, where the Christian minority has been savagely affected by the nearly three-year civil war.

The Patriarch said everyone had to do all they could to raise awareness of how dire the situation in Syria has become, and that more than 450,000 Christians have been made homeless by the fighting.

“This is a war without a face,” he said. “No one knows against whom they are fighting. There are more than 2000 separate groups involved, extremists, terrorists, bandits… In some parts of the country, Christians can feel quite safe and then, suddenly in a moment you are in deadly danger, the shelling will start or there is a knock on the door.”

Though attempts to negotiate a ceasefire in Syria have made little progress in recent weeks, the patriarch said Pope Francis had shown the world the ‘path to peace.’

Patriarch Gregorios said the world must follow the Pope and pray that next month’s second Geneva conference allows all sides to agree a ceasefire.

He also said he believed that peace in his homeland could bring harmony across the Middle East.

All of those who attended the event were given a copy of the new ACN Persecuted and Forgotten? report. It suggests that, over the past two years, the persecution of Christians has worsened in 20 nations.

“In the period under review, 2011–2013, violence and intimidation became more serious for Christians; in 20 of the 30 countries assessed, the situation worsened,” the report reveals. “In others, where the problems were already extreme, there has been little or no change. Christianity, the world’s most persecuted religion, now risks being wiped out in countries where until recently it has been well established. Oppression and exodus now threaten Christianity’s status as a worldwide religion.”

— To read the report in full, or donate to ACN, visit the charity’s website at www.acnuk.org/witnesssoutheast

— [email protected]

Pic: Paul McSherry

—This story ran in full, with additional photographs, in the October 25 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.