Dale Gavlak

Lebanese Christians are reeling from the death and destruction wrought on their community, caught in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, a side deadly conflict in the U.S. and Israel-Iran war.

Fr. Pierre al-Rahi, also known by his French name Pierre el-Raï, had earlier refused, along with other priests, to obey an order by the Israeli military to evacuate the Christian village of Qlayaa, a Maronite village of some 8,000 inhabitants in the Marjayoun district, a few miles from the Israeli border.

The Catholic community in northern Iraq has been shaken by the attack of an explosive drone hitting the Chaldean Catholic complex in Ankawa, outside of Irbil.

"I told the Holy Father of this terrible pain, and yet feeling a sense of peace and hope remembering how much God loves me," Melvine Khoury, a Maronite Catholic, said. "It cannot compare to Jesus' suffering on the cross."

As alarming sectarian violence swept through Syria in the third week of July, Christian communities in the region experienced a new wave of persecution. Attacks on the country's Christian, Druze and Alawite communities were perpetrated mainly by Islamist jihadists.

At a time when the fate of refugees and migrants is becoming increasingly uncertain, faith-based organizations in Rome say they are putting into practice their Christian values of protection and respect of human life to aid those seeking help.

An uneasy calm hangs over Aleppo, Christian leaders report, following the recent lightning takeover of Syria's second-largest city by Islamist rebels driving out forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Concerns also mount over government airstrikes.

Since Hamas' attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, and the immediate start of the Israel-Hamas war, Pope Francis has provided daily spiritual solace to Gaza Strip's only Catholic parish.

According to Lebanon's National News Agency, Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, "voiced his profound pain over the catastrophe affecting nearly 3,000 Lebanese citizens, some of whom have died and others who remain in critical condition following an Israeli attack involving the detonation of pager devices."

The Mar Musa Monastery's daily mission encourages a vibrant spiritual life and manual work, all the while embracing Abrahamic hospitality with the local community of Muslims and various Christian groups.

Cardinal Louis Sako, Iraq's top Catholic leader, expressed hope that an upcoming meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and U.S. President Joe Biden may have a positive impact for Christians in Iraq.

Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Cardinal Louis Sako said he would like more Vatican support as he tries to regain formal recognition as the Chaldean patriarch in the country.

Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Cardinal Louis Sako has left his patriarchal residence in the capital, Baghdad, relocating to a monastery in the northern Kurdistan region after the president of Iraq recently revoked a decree that formally recognized him as Chaldean patriarch in the country.

Christians and others practicing their faith experienced serious challenges to religious freedom around the world this year, heightened by dangers posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Parts of Syria's north where Kurds, Christians and Yazidis have practiced religious freedom in recent years are reportedly again under attack by mainly Turkish military and their allied Syrian Islamist fighters.

Hospitals in the Lebanese capital are overwhelmed with those suffering injuries from a massive explosion in Beirut's port, causing widespread damage the city and rocking the tiny Mediterranean nation already devastated by the coronavirus and its worst financial crisis since the 1975–1990 civil war.

Christians and Muslims hope a project to reconstruct Mosul's iconic places of worship, badly damaged by Islamic State militants during their 2014-2017 occupation of the city, will also help to rebuild trust between Iraq's fractured religious communities.

Catholic aid agencies helping the displaced in northern Iraq say they are reaching those in need as the COVID-19 situation slowly improves there.

A group of priests in Lebanon have quarantined themselves while a pair of their elders are fighting coronavirus. A Catholic hospital in another part of the tiny Mediterranean country has also seen a spread of the COVID-19 as fear of the disease grips the cash-strapped nation.

Iraqis fear their country, already weary from years of war, may be dragged into a conflict between the United States and Iran, following the U.S.-targeted killing in Baghdad of Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani.