Vatican City, 21 July 2014 (VIS) –
Yesterday Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for
the Oriental Churches, celebrated Mass in the Maronite Cathedral of
Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles, United States, on the occasion of
the festivity of Sts. Charbel and Elias, commemorated by Lebanese
Maronites all over the world on the third Sunday of July. Around four
hundred faithful of the Oriental Churches participated in the
celebration.
According to a communiqué from the
dicastery, the cardinal spoke in his homily of the immense suffering
caused by the desperate fate of many innocent people and remarked
that, while the Christians in Mosul in Iraq and Aleppo in Syria are
the most afflicted, the entire area is in a state of insecurity,
unfortunately maintained by widespread indifference. He also made
reference to those affected by current events in Palestine, “who
are in tears, unable to be men and Christians in serenity and
dignity. We tell them that their tears are ours, nonetheless we share
the same hope, and its name is Christ; and Jesus Christ is faithful.
For this, we persevere together in the same journey”.
After reading the appeal in support of
persecuted Christians, launched by Pope Francis during yesterday's
Angelus, the Cardinal invited the faithful to pray in silence and
emphasised the Church's closeness to the Patriarchs, the bishops and
the people of the Syro-Catholic and Chaldean Churches. He emphasised
the Church's participation in their suffering and urged them to
persevere in the defence of human rights and religious freedom,
“particularly where Christians have been living for two thousand
years since the beginning of Christianity” to the benefit of
society, and where they may continue to offer their contribution to
the human community.
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