Russian, Catholic Churches to make list of destroyed churches, monasteries in Syria

Natalya Mihailova | 11 April 2016
Moscow, April 11, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate and the Roman Catholic Church will join efforts to help restore Christian shrines in Syria, the External Church Relations Department of the Russian Orthodox Church said.
Russian, Catholic Churches to make list of destroyed churches, monasteries in Syria
Photo: http://www.aina.org/

“The need to make a detailed list of Christian shrines – churches and monasteries – which were destroyed and damaged during the Syrian war, and the strengthening of the joint Christian witnessing of the Syrian tragedy were recognized as one of top near-term priorities,” the Russian Church said on its website after a joint delegation of both Churches travelled to Syria and Lebanon.

The delegation included Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, the head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mother of God in Moscow, Hieromonch Stefan (Igumnov), secretary of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, and representatives from Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic foundation.

Representatives of both Churches held consultations with local faith leaders and visited refugee camps.

“It is well known that the tragedy in the Middle East, which caused suffering to representatives of various Christian denominations and other groups, and the need to take urgent steps to improve the situation were at the center of discussion at a meeting between Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Pope Francis in Havana on February 12, 2016,” the Russian Church said on its website.

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.