ISSUE No 7
FAITH ALIVE
The Interactive Magazine
IRAQ
SIGN OF HOPE Helping the suffering Church today www.acnmalta.org
SYRIA: LEBANON: Re-doubling aid ‘We’ll get for Syria through it’
One Million Children Praying the Rosary
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A word from the National Director
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“ACN is expanding its role to improve the different situations of persecuted Christians.” I cordially welcome you to another edition of Faith Alive - ACN (Malta)’s digital magazine which keeps you updated on the latest issues impacting negatively on our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters around the world, and the steps we are taking to alleviate their suffering in their circumstances. In this edition, you will read about new findings by the United Nations highlighting a very serious development for children, women and families in Syria and how ACN is expanding its role to improve their situation. This month, we marked the United Nations International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. This is an important step towards ensuring that more attention is paid to Christians who are being persecuted. I thank you for your interest and solidarity in our mission of bringing aid to persecuted and discriminated Christians. Your concern and your love give us the strength and ability to perform our mission, several times against great odds. In this regard ACN (Malta) would like to thank the national news media in Malta for their ongoing support to highlight the plight of Christians following information sent to them by ACN (Malta).
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www.acnmalta.org Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation of the Catholic Church and registered in Malta Reg. No. LPF-212, as a Foundation regulated by the second schedule of the Civil Code Chapter (16) of the Laws of Malta.
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Stephen Axisa National Director Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Malta
SIGN OF HOPE THE WEDDING OF DISPLACED YOUNG IRAQIS STARTING A NEW LIFE IN THEIR HOMELAND 3
Reconstruction of totally destroyed multipurpose hall of St Mary, Bashiqa
6 August 2014, is a day Iraqi Christians will not be able to erase from their memory. On that tragic date, the Islamic State (ISIS) swept across the Nineveh Plain and thousands of families were forced to flee to save their lives. With little more than the clothes they were wearing, they reached Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, leaving everything behind. The lives of many young Christian Iraqis changed that day, including that of Rita and Rami. Everything in this Iraqi region, located north and east of Mosul, falls into either “Before ISIS” or “After ISIS”. This is the case for Karamlesh, a Christian village important to Chaldean Catholics. “Before ISIS”, it had about four thousand residents. Almost all of them fled before the jihadists arrived. Reconstruction of totally destroyed multipurpose hall of St Mary, Bashiqa
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YOUR DONATION IS SAVING LIVES
The Islamic State imposed a reign of terror in Karamlesh, using the village as an important base in its battle against Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga, and Iraqi forces. In the village, tunnels were dug so that ISIS fighters could move around, including under the Church of St Joseph and the Shrine of St Barbara. The Church of St Adday was set on fire, its sacristy destroyed, and the cemetery vandalised. ISIS fighters were lodged in the city’s houses, which were connected to each other by holes punched in walls and through tunnels. The kindergarten was turned into a weapons factory. Rami and Rita were among the thousands of Christians who fled Karamlesh finding refuge in Erbil. The two young people barely knew each other at the time. Rami was 22 years old and found a place in one of the many camps the Church established for displaced families. Rita, who was only 16 years old, and her family found shelter in a rented home. One day, Rita visited the camp where Rami was staying and met the young man. The two became friends during this difficult period.
Father Adday Babaca celebrating the Wedding mass
On 24 October 2016, the Iraqi army liberated Karamlesh. Rami was first to return to Karamlesh with his family. Very 5
Father Adday Babaca in front the restored St. Adday Church, Karamlesh
Karamlesh is an ancient Assyrian town in northern Iraq located less than 18 miles south east of Mosul
quickly the village saw new shoots of life. Crosses were soon back on the domes of some of the main churches. Roads, schools and churches were rebuilt. Soon Rita too returned. Little by little, life in the village revived; among the stores that reopened were two barbershops and a bakery. Currently, only a third of residents are back in Karamlesh. In many homes, there are still many empty chairs around the family table. Rami and Rita decided, however, to take a step further. They boldly did what seemed impossible seven years earlier, when they had to give up everything and flee, living first as displaced people and then restarting from scratch: they decided to stay and start a new family. “Our life is not without risks but life won’t stop, risks or no risk. We have to keep going,” Rami told ACN. They were the first couple to celebrate their wedding at the St Joseph Chaldean Centre. Before the arrival of the jihadists, the facility was used for multiple purposes: weddings, wakes, conferences, films, debates, exhibitions, youth activities and more. The Islamic State left the building badly damaged: the roof was damaged, the 6
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Fr. Thabet Habeb Mansur in the Mar Addai Church, Karamlesh
ventilation system, sanitation facilities, electrical power, plumbing, kitchen and telephone system... everything was unusable. Walls on the upper floors were broken because jihadists used them to fire into the vast plain. With the help of ACN’s benefactors, all of this now is a thing of the past. Rami and Rita were able to inaugurate the St Joseph Centre and celebrate their wedding in the place where they were born, the place they had lost, and then regained. Young and old toasted the young couple amid traditional Iraqi dances. Seven years after fear and death overwhelmed Karamlesh, new life and hope are taking root. “On the wall of the church the jihadists wrote: ‘There will be no more Christianity in Iraq’. They did not succeed. Thank God, we, Iraqi Catholics are back,” Rami says.
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RE-DOUBLING AID FOR SYRIA AS “MANY PEOPLE ARE CLOSE TO STARVATION”
Old man on his way to the office of Saint Peter’s Relief Centre in Marmarita, Syria
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Ever-deepening economic crisis – on top of 10 years of war – has triggered a new emergency in Syria, where millions of people are desperately short of food and shelter. Recent findings by the United Nations has highlighted that “after a decade of crises, life is harder than ever” for many Syrians. In response, Church leaders are renewing pleas for aid from ACN. Thanking ACN’s Benefactors for helping the Christians through the dark days of war, our leading Syria project partner, Sister Annie Demerjian, told us: “Many people are close to starving. Only the other day, I saw children scavenging for food in rubbish bins. It is heart-breaking.” Economic meltdown, made worse by economic sanctions and COVID-19, means that, according to the UN, 12.4 million people – 60 percent of Syrians – lack “regular access to enough... nutritious food”. This is 4.5 million more than the year before. The reports also state that more than 500,000 children under five suffer from stunted growth caused by malnutrition.
Share the bread project for the elderly in Syria
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Cooking and packaging of food for distribution to poor families in Syria
With ISIS now defeated and many NGOs pulling back partly because of the pandemic, one ACN project partner said: “Who can we turn to if not you at ACN?”
YOUR DONATION IS SAVING LIVES
ACN is redoubling its efforts – prioritising food and milk, shelter and rent, medicine and clothes. Projects supported by ACN include rent for 100 families in Aleppo for a year, a summer holiday programme for children with special needs, and food and clothes for needy families in the Syrian capital Damascus. Working with the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate in Damascus and other Christian aid organisations, ACN is helping to expand the work of the “Bakery of Mercy” in Maarouneh, northern Damascus, which has been providing food. Set up in September 2020, it currently provides around 1,000 families with affordable bread. Moreover, internally displaced persons, as well as those living in elderly people’s homes and orphanages, are provided with free bread by the “Bakery of Mercy”. With help from ACN, plans are now underway to extend the premises to build a soup kitchen and a social market, which will offer basic food and other products at affordable and stable prices. Maronite Priest, Fr Ashkar is involved with another ACNbacked project, providing medical treatment for those who need medical treatment but cannot afford it. Many of these are internally displaced. Among the help provided, the project aims to cover prescriptions for 2,385 patients and 60 courses of medical treatment.
Georges Mansour - his family receives emergency support
Dr Nabil Antaki visiting elderly
Bishop Antoine Chbeir of Lattakia told us: “Most of our patients rely completely on us, and it is a question of death or life for chronic patients, in particular for those who absolutely need medication such as diabetics, those with heart problems, blood pressure, or cancer”. To try to address Syria’s lack of jobs, the ACN-backed Christian Hope Center opened in Damascus on 22nd July 2021, providing families with funds to begin new businesses or restart ventures disrupted during the war. Since the civil war began in 2011, Syria has been a priority country for ACN, where the ancient Christian community has shrunk to one-third of its 1.5 million pre-war total.
Please “Help us support those in Need” thank you 9
LEBANON: ‘WE’LL GET THROUGH IT’ On the anniversary of the Beirut port explosion (4th August 2020), Christians in Lebanon have expressed hope and optimism for the future – despite the worst economic crisis in 150 years and the ever-present threat of migration.
A Sister at the Rosary Hospital after 4th August’s port blast, Beirut
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WARNING: Please read before opening this video. This video includes some powerful and highly emotional imagery.
Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Fr Raymond Abdo, Provincial of the Discalced Carmelites in Lebanon, praised Pope Francis’ inspirational support. He said: “Pope Francis has given us hope that we can confront this crisis, with his appeal to the universal Church not to let us go under. The Pope is not going to abandon the Church in Lebanon.” The Holy Father organised a meeting for Lebanese Christian leaders at the Vatican last month. Fr Abdo added: “We are regaining some degree of confidence despite all the difficulties. Why should we fear anything when we have our faith in Jesus Christ? You only need a little yeast to leaven the whole loaf.” On 4th August 2020, an explosion in Beirut, set off by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, killed more than 200 people and left more than 300,000 homeless. The country is experiencing a serious economic crisis that has led to spiralling inflation with more than 50 percent of the population living below the poverty line due to corruption, weak public infrastructure and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the problems facing the country’s Christians, ACN was repeatedly told that there is a future for believers in Lebanon. Christian lawyer Wajih Raad told ACN that despite a pessimistic atmosphere and people wanting to leave, the Christian community will survive. He said: “It’s going to take several years, but we’ll get through it”.
But Christians are facing major struggles. Sister Eva Abou Nassar, administrative director of Holy Family School in Jounieh, 20km from Beirut, explained how the economic crisis had led her to lose up to 20 teachers last June and July. Sister Eva said: “Most of them want to emigrate, since they can simply no longer make ends meet. Their purchasing power has fallen drastically. Whereas before the crisis a starting salary of ل.ل.1,525 million was roughly equivalent to US$1,000, with the collapse of the Lebanese pound it is now worth no more than US$75 or 80. An experienced teacher earns twice that much, but that is still far too little. Whereas before the crisis one dollar was worth ل.ل.1,500, it is now being exchanged on the black market for ل.ل.18,900.” She added: “Some of the families here in Jounieh, a town not generally regarded as being poor, actually go out early in the morning, in order not to be seen, scavenging food from the dustbins.” ACN has supported the Christian community in Lebanon to help rebuild the Christian Quarter which was badly hit by the explosion. The Charity has also provided significant emergency relief aid but the assistance needs to be further sustained in the circumstances until these crises are lifted.
Please “Help us support those in Need” thank you 11
One Million Children praying the Rosary
For unity and peace On the 18th O ctober 12
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This is a worldwide prayer campaign organised by ACN. All over the world, including Malta, children will be praying the Rosary on 18th October. What is this Prayer Campaign about? This prayer initiative aims to rekindle faith in the power of prayer. The worldwide campaign is an invitation to remember the words of Our Lady of Fatima that the childlike and trusting prayer of the Rosary can truly change the world, defeat evil, and bring peace.
Praying the Rosary together with children will strengthen unity in the Church and among peoples. We are all called to form one family across borders, united in prayer. Out of prayer grows love for God and our neighbours. The Rosary opens our hearts to concrete help for the persecuted, the needy and the poor in whom Christ himself is suffering.
How can you be a part of this?
INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO PRAY TOGETHER!
ACN is inviting families, parishes, catechists, teachers to pray the Rosary together with children on 18th October for peace and unity in the world. We have prepared prayer material for you to spread this campaign and get inspired in the preparation of children for the prayer of the Rosary.
Anyone who would like to join this wonderful prayer initiative with children from their family, school or organisation is kindly asked to contact ACN (Malta).
WATCH THIS VIDEO!
Learn more https://acninternational.org/ millionchildrenpraying/
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