ACN launches new projects to
assist Syrian Christians
 |
| The Syrian city of Aleppo (AFP) |
Aid to the Church in Need is sponsoring two new projects to
assist Christians living in Syria.
By Vatican News
The Secretary General of the United Nations says the UN
“remains deeply concerned over the safety and protection of civilians and
civilian infrastructure following continued reports of hostilities in
north-west Syria over the last days, including airstrikes, shelling and the
alleged use of barrel bombs.”
According to the UN, more than 30 civilians have been killed
in the area of Idlib since 12 July.
The United Nations is urging “all parties to respect their
obligations under International Humanitarian Law, to protect civilians and
civilian infrastructure, and to exercise restraint.”
Aid for Syrian Christians
Meanwhile, Aid to the Church in Need has launched a new
appeal to help Christians in Syria.
“In Syria, the war is not yet over, terrorism has still not
been defeated, and our brothers and sisters need our help more than ever,” says
Alessandro Monteduro, Director of the Italian branch of Aid to the Church in
Need (CAN).
He was speaking at the launch of a new initiative by ACN to
support two different projects to assist Syrian Christians.
The first project is centred in Aleppo, where years of
conflict have left deep wounds. Responding to a request from the Apostolic
Vicar of the city, Bishop George Abou Khazen, CAN will distribute food packages
to the poorest Christian families, as well as financial aid to help them
acquire gas and heating oil.
In Damascus, the Greek-Melkite Patriarch Youssef Absi has asked
for help to obtain medicine and home medical care for seriously ill Christians.
In requesting aid, Project Manager Sister Joseph Marie Chanaa writes, “Without
your benefactors we would not be able to carry out our mission.”
Keeping up "the light of hope"
From the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011 until the end
of 2018, Aid to the Church in Need has donated more than thirty million euros
to the local Churches, including approximately 8.6 million euros last year
alone. In many areas where the security situation has improved, ACN and has
already begun to support a plan for the reconstruction of churches and
Christian homes.
Pope Francis, in his Urbi et Orbi message for Easter of this
year, described the Syrian people as “victims of an ongoing conflict to which
we risk becoming ever more resigned and even indifferent.” The benefactors of
Aid to the Church in Need, says Monteduro, have never given up, and have always
fought the “virus of indifference with concrete and generous solidarity.” “With
these two projects,” he says, “we want to contribute, once again, to keeping up
the light of hope in the country in which our brothers and sisters were called
Christian for the first time.”
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