Christian Portal News

Read the Full Article at Christian News

Two days before Christmas, two churches were bombed in Mosul, Iraq, on December 23, Voice of the Martyrs reports.

At 11:00 a.m., a bomb was detonated near the Syrian Orthodox church of St. Thomas. On the same day, a bomb exploded in a cart of vegetables near the Chaldean church of St. George. The latter bomb killed three people, including one Christian and two Muslims.

Many Christians have fled Mosul, which is the primary target for a series of attacks against believers in recent months…. >>

(author unknown) Chaldean, Christmas, Iraq, Martyrs, Muslim, Orthodox, People

Read the Full Article at CNA Daily News - Middle East - Africa

Rome, Italy, Dec 10, 2009 / 01:05 pm (CNA).- Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad revealed yesterday that the offices of the Chaldean Patriarchate in the Iraqi capital were damaged by the terrorist attacks on Tuesday that left 127 dead and 500 wounded.

(author unknown) Bishop, Catholic, Chaldean, Iraq

Read the Full Article at CNA Daily News - Middle East - Africa

Brooklyn, N.Y., Nov 30, 2009 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- On Thursday Nov. 26, St. Ephrem’s Chaldean Church and the nearby presbytery in the Northern City of Mosul were destroyed when attackers walked in and detonated high explosives. Both buildings were empty at the time and no one was injured.

(author unknown) Catholic, Chaldean, Iraq

Read the Full Article at Breaking Religious News latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com

Zenit.org ).- An attack on a Catholic Church in Mosul have Christians throughout Iraq worried for their safety, says the Catholic archbishop of Mosul of the Chaldeans.Archbishop Emil Shimoun Nona said…

(author unknown) Bishop, Catholic, Chaldean, Iraq

Read the Full Article at Christian Today

A Chaldean Christian church in Iraq was bombed Monday injuring three children in the latest violent act against a Christian house of worship Iraqi officials said

(author unknown) Chaldean, Iraq, Worship

Read the Full Article at International Christian Concern

“Since 2003, our situation has deteriorated greatly. Persecution of Christians and other minorities first started in Basra, then Baghdad. In 2008, in Mosul (the Nineveh Province – North of Iraq), entire Chaldean and Assyrian families were kicked out from their homes. And today it is Kirkuk. The government is not protecting us despite several of your pleas. The government refuses to give us information as to who is committing these murders even though it knows their identities. We are helpless. Someone help us please.”

(author unknown) Chaldean, Iraq, Persecution

Read the Full Article at Moreover Technologies - Religion news - 30 of 18250 returned

Why no formal statement from the United States? LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) – On Friday February 29, 2008 the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, Paulos Faraj Rahho was kidnapped at gunpoint. Three men traveling with him were killed. The

(author unknown) Bishop, Catholic, Chaldean, Iraq

Read the Full Article at www.catholic.org

VATICAN CITY (VIS) – This morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Iran, who have just completed their “ad limina” visit. The conference is made up of ordinaries of the Armenian, Chaldean and Latin Churches who, the Pope reminded them, represent “the richness of unity in the diversity that exists in the bosom of the Catholic Church, to which you bear daily witness in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

“Yesterday as today”, he went on, “the Catholic Church never ceases to give encouragement to those concerned for the common good and peace among nations. For its part neither will Iran, a bridge between the Middle East and sub- continental Asia, cease to fulfil this vocation”.

(author unknown) All Posts, Armenian, Catholic, Chaldean, Episcopal, Iran, Islamic, Pope, Vatican

Read the Full Article at CNA Daily News

Turin, Jan 7, 2009 / 10:47 am (CNA).- The Pastoral Office for Migrants of the Archdiocese of Turin said this week that the five-year long campaign called, “I have a new friend, an Iraqi Chaldean priest,” has been a success, and it encouraged the faithful to continue supporting the Christian community in Iraq.

(author unknown) Catholic, Chaldean, Iraq, Pastor, Pastoral, Priest

Read the Full Article at News2

In Iraq, the priests routinely celebrate mass in nearly empty churches—if they dare open their church doors at all. –

The Chicago Tribune reports At the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in this working-class
Christian suburb east of Beirut, Rev. Joseph Malkoum preaches to an
Iraqi congregation that expands every Sunday, swelled by the ranks of
Christians fleeing Iraq.

In recent weeks, he has noticed an increase in the number of new faces
crowded into the pews as a surge in violence directed against
Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul fuels a fresh wave of
refugees.

“There was a period when we felt the numbers were going down, but after
the recent troubles in Mosul the movement is picking up again,” said
Malkoum, who holds a special mass every Sunday for Iraqi Chaldeans, the
denomination to which the majority of Iraqi Christians belongs.

WND reports Nearly 500,000 Christians who fled Iraq because of attacks by
al-Qaida or other Islamic fundamentalists now are being encouraged to
return by a Christian organization seeking financial support from the
Iraqi government to rebuild homes and lives.

Ken Joseph Jr. of the Assyrian Christians
said the multinational military force that ejected Saddam Hussein from
power and has worked to establish a stable government has succeeded.

Now he’s working to help Christians chased by the violence to
return, since they are, in fact, the first people of Iraq, he said.

aBetterWay Chaldean, Financial, Iraq, Islamic, People, Persecution, Priest

Read the Full Article at News2

With the dismantling of Saddam’s regime, anarchy has reigned in Iraq, and members of religious minorities — especially Christians — have been threatened and persecuted. –

The New American reports Westerners tend to think of Iraq as always having been a Muslim nation,
but Christians have an ancient tradition there. Some accounts trace the
presence of Christianity in Iraq to the arrival of the apostle Thomas
in 37 A.D. (In contrast, Islam did not spread to Iraq until the seventh
century A.D.) The nation’s largest Christian group, the Chaldeans, use
a liturgical language very similar to the Aramaic spoken in Palestine
at the time of Christ. While the largest number of Iraq’s Christians
are Chaldean Eastern Rite Catholics, other Christian denominations in
Iraq include Assyrians; Presbyterians; Anglicans; evangelicals; and
Greek, Syriac, and Armenian Orthodox.

Under the authoritarian, yet secularized, rule of the Sunni Muslim
Saddam Hussein, there simply was not enough freedom of movement in Iraq
for radical elements within the Shiite majority to act aggressively
toward their Sunni or Christian neighbors. In fact, traditionally,
adherents of all faiths were able to coexist in relative peace. With
the power vacuum created by the dismantling of Saddam’s central regime,
however, anarchy has reigned in Iraq, and members of religious
minorities — especially Christians — have been threatened and
persecuted.

OneNewsNow.com reports Recently, two Christian sisters were killed in Mosul by Islamic
terrorists simply because they were Christians. The violent act comes
as more than 200 displaced Christian families from Mosul started to
return to their houses after more Iraqi troops were deployed in the
city.

In the past two months, an estimated 24 to 40 Christians in Mosul have been killed because of their faith.

aBetterWay Anglican, Armenian, Catholic, Chaldean, Denominations, Easter, Evangelical, Evangelicals, Iraq, Islamic, Muslim, Orthodox, Persecution, Presbyterian, Santa

Read the Full Article at News2

Religious cleansing is taking place in many Muslim Middle Eastern states. –

The LA Times reports Even Americans unschooled in the history of the Middle East know that
Iraq comprises Sunni, Shia and Kurdish Muslims, thanks to the Bush
administration’s much-publicized effort to promote reconciliation among
those groups. Often overlooked is the fact that Iraq has an ancient Christian population that has suffered grievously from the instability that followed the U.S. invasion.

More than 1,300 Christians recently fled
the city of Mosul after 14 were killed — perhaps by Al Qaeda in Iraq
– following a protest about an election law that didn’t provide
Christians with fair representation on provincial councils. But that is
only the latest exodus of Christians from Mosul, which served as a
refuge for those driven out of Baghdad, and from Iraq as a whole. A
Chaldean Catholic archbishop has warned that Christians in his country
face “liquidation.”

Reuters reports A Christian family huddles in an austere room in a monastery in
northern Iraq, their belongings piled up around them. It is now home,
since members of their religious minority became targets of sectarian
attacks.

The father, an engineer who was so scared that he asked to keep his
name and that of his family unidentified, rushed his wife and two
daughters to the Chaldean Catholic al-Saida monastery at the foot of
arid mountains in northern Iraq on October 9, a day after hearing that
four fellow Christians were killed.

“The explosions continue. There is no safety,” he says with his youngest daughter draped on his lap.

aBetterWay Bishop, Catholic, Chaldean, Easter, Epiphany, Family, History, Iraq, Muslim, Persecution, Santa, School

Read the Full Article at News2

A church in the northern city of Mosul was bombed Tuesday as Christians continued to leave the city to escape recent violence that has been directed at them. –

The NY Times reports Several church leaders accused the Iraqi government of trying to
cover up the extent of the problems facing Christians there and of
overstating its success in improving security in Mosul, one of the
country’s most volatile cities.

As the government announced plans
on Tuesday to send officials to Mosul to assist the Christian
community, the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr,
who is believed to be in Iran, sent some of his most senior aides from
the holy Shiite city of Najaf to Baghdad to meet with church leaders in
an expression of solidarity.

“For Christians in Mosul this is a
time for tears, because from the beginning we did not get support,
least of all from state officials,” Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, the
auxiliary bishop of the Chaldean Patriarchate, told the Shiite
delegation during a meeting on Tuesday at the Virgin Mary Church in
eastern Baghdad.

Al Jezeera reports A Christian
businessman has been shot dead by a group of unidentified armed men
in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police sources say. The
latest in a series of attacks, the shooting came before a local
official said that the flight of Christian families from the city had
been stemmed by an increased police presence.

The Christian Post reports Nearly 1,000 police were deployed to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul,
said a local official on Monday, after thousands of Christians this
past week fled their homes in fear following a string of murders and
violence.

AFP reports The flight of Christians from their homes in Mosul has been stemmed
after police reinforcements took up positions in the troubled northern
Iraqi city, a local official said on Monday.

aBetterWay Bishop, Business, Chaldean, Easter, God, Iran, Iraq, Islamic, People, Persecution, Santa

Read the Full Article at News2

Iraq’s prime minister sought safeguards Sunday for small religious communities in this mainly Muslim country as Christians protested parliament’s decision to stop setting aside seats for minorities on provincial councils. –

AP reports Parliament last week approved a new law mandating elections in most of Iraq’s 18 provinces. But the law removed a system that reserved a few legislative seats for Christians and other religious minorities. But the law removed a system that reserved a few legislative seats for Christians and other religious minorities.

Reuters reports Iraq’s Christian communities, as well as smaller minority sects such
as Yazidis in northern Iraq, have tried to stay out of the fray during
years of sectarian fighting. But churches have been attacked and two
Yazidi villages were struck by truck bombs a year ago in the deadliest
strike of the war.

Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of Iraq’s Chaldean Catholics, called for the presidency council to intervene.

“I call on the presidency council not to approve the cancellation of
article 50 of the provincial law, which is an oppression against our
presence and representation in Iraqi society,” he said in a television
interview on Saturday

aBetterWay Catholic, Chaldean, International Politics, Iraq, Muslim, Santa

Read the Full Article at News2

Amid grave fears for the future of Iraq’s dwindling Christian community, a group of American military chaplains and lay preachers met with Iraqi Christians at the Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad. –

The NY Times reports (with video) It was a rare encounter for the Iraqis, many of whom have had family
members killed, kidnapped and threatened in anti-Christian attacks
since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, but who came in through the Green
Zone checkpoints to sing and pray with their American fellow Christians.

aBetterWay Chaldean, Denominations, Family, Iraq, Santa

Read the Full Article at News2

MP Yonatan Bet Kolia, the representative of the Assyrian and Chaldean Christian communities in the Majlis, said on Saturday that religious minorities live in peace in Iran and are free to perform their religious ceremonies. –

The Tehran Times reports The Christian lawmaker went on to say that
religious minorities are ready to defend their country in the face of
any foreign threat.

aBetterWay Abuse, Adoption, Birth Control, Bishop, Burqa, Chaldean, Contraception, Court, Cult, Darwin, Denominations, Divorce, Doctor Who, Embryo, Evangelical, Evolution, Gay, God, Holocaust, India, Intelligent Design, International Politics, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jesus, Judge, Lesbian, Marriage, McCain, Muslim, Nativity, Nun, Pakistan, Palin, Pastor, Priest, Same Sex, Santa, Satan, Saudi Arabia, Spank, Transgender, UFO, University, Vicar