Tag: Yohanna Ibrahim

Church council calls for release of Syrian bishops abducted five years ago

June 29, 2018 Syria Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Kidnapping, Middle East, Pope Francis, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has called for the release of two Syrian archbishops kidnapped five years ago. “The Central Committee recalls with heavy hearts the abduction five years ago of the archbishops of Aleppo, Yohanna Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi,” the WCC said in a statement following a six-day . . . Read More

Syria: Report highlights ‘brutality against Christian clerics’, with five still missing

June 26, 2018 Syria Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Homs, Kidnapping, Paolo Dall’Oglio, Qatana, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Fr. Paolo Dall’Oglio, a Jesuit priest who was abducted in Syria in July 2013, is one of the clerics who disappeared and whose fate remains unknown. (Photo: veDro via Flickr / Creative Commons)

A report about violence against Syrian church leaders during the ongoing civil war shows that clerics have been beaten, abducted – five are still missing – and killed, and that 2013 was the worst year. In ‘The Good Shepherd: A Report on Brutality against Christian Clerics in Syria March 25, . . . Read More

Five years on, hope remains for missing Syrian bishops

April 27, 2018 Syria Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Kidnapping, Qatar, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Yohanna Ibrahim

Syrian Bishop Boulos Yaziji, head of the Greek Orthodox church in Aleppo, together with his counterpart from the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo, has been missing since 22 April 2013. (Photo: LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images)

Five years since the disappearance of two Syrian bishops, the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut says “all available evidence and indications encourage continued optimism” that they may yet be alive and one day released. However, its statement added that “all the efforts that have been made to obtain even a . . . Read More

Syria’s second city begins long road to recovery

February 8, 2018 Syria Aleppo, Bashar al-Assad, Boulos Yazigi, Churches, Civil War, Greek Orthodox, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Flag of Syria is waving as sign of victory over the destroyed heavily damaged city of Aleppo. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Since the battle for Aleppo ended over a year ago, Syria’s historic second city has fallen out of the headlines. The rebuilding of shattered, impoverished lives is a slow process, but it has presented the churches there with opportunities, says one aid worker with the Christian charity Open Doors. On . . . Read More

Four years on still no news of kidnapped Syrian bishops

April 28, 2017 Syria Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Kidnapping, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Four years on and no-one knows where kidnapped Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yazigi is, as well as his colleague. Photo: Getty Images

At the fourth anniversary of their disappearance the whereabouts of two Syrian bishops is still unknown. Syriac Orthodox Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Boulos Yazigi were abducted on 22 April 2013. Several attempts to locate them have been so far unsuccessful. According to Asia News, Mgr Daniel Kourie, Syriac . . . Read More

Demonstration remembers kidnapped Aleppo Bishops

April 20, 2016 Syria Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi, Kidnapping, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

The kidnapped Aleppo Bishops, Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi, were last seen three years ago this week. A multi-faith demonstration to remember them was held in Beirut, Lebanon 19 April, . There has been no news of the two men since their abduction on 22 April 2013, near the Turkish . . . Read More

Global Church meets to seek unity in face of persecution

November 6, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Albania, Aleppo, Algeria, Catholics, Churches, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Kenya, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, Orthodox, Pakistan, Pentecostals, Protestants, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yohanna Ibrahim

Twenty-five years ago, on 4 Nov. 1990, a priest risked his life to hold a mass in a cemetery in Albania. In 1967 his president, Enver Hoxha, had declared that he had “abolished” the Christian faith, and that his country was henceforth the world’s first atheist state. On 4 Nov. . . . Read More

Jihadists release Syrian priest, 22 elderly Assyrians

August 19, 2015 Syria Assyrians, Boulos Yazigi, Catholics, Hasakah, Islamic State, Jacques Mourad, Khabur, Paolo Dall’Oglio, Qaryatain, Sadad, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Five weeks after Fr. Antoine Boutros and his driver were kidnapped on their way to Sunday mass in southern Syria’s Suweida province on July 12, the Catholic parish priest has been released. Disclosure of the 50-year-old priest’s release on Aug. 15 came from the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, . . . Read More

Iraqi Franciscan priest abducted in northwest Syria

July 8, 2015 Syria Al-Nusra Front, Assyrians, Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Hasakah, Idlib, Islamic State, Jacques Mourad, Kidnapping, Paolo Dall’Oglio, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Father Dhiya Aziz was kidnapped by militants from Yacoubieh, Idlib Province, where he serves as parish priest on Sat 4th July. The militants were purportedly taking him for a brief meeting with the Emir who exercises authority in that area, which is under the control of the Al-Qaeda affiliate group, . . . Read More

All Knayeh hostages free

October 13, 2014 Syria Al-Nusra Front, Bashar al-Assad, Boulos Yazigi, Homs, Idlib, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Paolo Dall’Oglio, Raqqa, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

NOTE: This report, originally posted Oct. 8, is updated to include the release of all hostages The last of a group of 20 Syrian Christians kidnapped Oct. 5 have been released as their pastor awaits trial before an Islamic court. Rev. Hanna Jallouf, a Franciscan priest in the northeastern Syria town of Knayeh, was abducted with about 20 . . . Read More

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