Scottish Catholic Observer

A Lebanese bishop has told Scottish Catholics that ‘God only knows’ if there will be any Christians living in the Middle East in 20 years time such is the persecution they are facing.

Maronite Archbishop Elias Nassar of Saida in Lebanon was speaking at an Aid to the Church in Need event at Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral in Motherwell last Thursday when he said it had become all too ‘convenient for Europe to ignore and forget about Christian persecution in my region.’

During Mass at the cathedral, Bishop Joseph Toal of Motherwell used his homily to urge those present to help the ‘Christians in need who are crying out for help, their prayer is very strong and they are persisting in their faith in the most difficult circumstances.’

After the Mass, Archbishop Nassar provided first-hand experience of life in Lebanon, whose population has swelled following the vast number of refugees arriving from war-torn Iraq and Syria, including two million from Syria alone.

“The suffering of Christians in my part of the world began long ago but it has expanded greatly in the past few years,” the archbishop said. “What we see in Syria and Iraq from ISIS are the most inhumane barbaric acts. There has been so much suffering.”

Bishop Toal said Scottish Catholics could not forget about their fellow Christians who suffered in the Middle East.

“No matter how hard the circumstances the Holy Spirit is always there,” he said. “I worry sometimes we feel the pain of those suffering but we don’t accept it for ourselves.”

Neville Kyrke-Smith, Aid to the Church in Need (UK)’s national director, also spoke at the event and related a story of the ISIS invasion on the city of Mosul in Iraq.

“They scrawled the Aramaic symbol for ‘N’ meaning Nazarene, on all the homes of Christians,” he said. “Marking them for death as the Nazi’s did to the Jews. Yet since then that symbol has been taken and worn on T-shirts and badges by Christians and Muslims all over the world as a symbol of solidarity. A terrible act has been made a symbol of hope.”

The ACN event in Scotland was very well attended with pupils from nine schools at the Mass.

The choir was provided by Our Lady’s High School and a procession of students carried posters with images from around the world, depicting: Extremism, Hope and Faith. Archbishop Nassar also spoke in Westminster Archdiocese while visiting the UK.

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—Read the full version of this story in October 17 edition of the SCO in parishes from Friday.