Over the past twelve years, around 200,000 Christians have left Aleppo. This was just part of the overall persecution and exodus of religious minorities from the region. Now, Syria’s remaining Christians face a renewed threat from advancing Islamist forces.
“Christian leaders in Syria fearful after Islamist advance,” Crux, December 3, 2024:
Christian leaders in Syria are concerned over the advances of jihadist rebels in the country which include the takeover of the country’s second city, Aleppo. Rebels have imposed a curfew on churches, and bishops of all denominations are calling for unity. The United Nations says the fighting led by the terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other armed factions, has engulfed parts of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama, destabilising frontlines that had been in stalemate since 2020. HTS is backed by Turkey and has operated under several names during the Syrian conflict, including “Jabhat al-Nusra”, and is an ideological offshoot of al-Qaeda. On Sunday, during a bombing of the city of Aleppo, a bomb fell on the Franciscan complex of the Terra Santa College. “Thanks to God, there were no fatalities or casualties, only the building was damaged. Our friars and the faithful of the parish are all well,” said Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, the Custos of the Holy Land. “We are in constant contact with them from our Curia. For the time being they are informing us of the growing tension and fear of the civil population of Aleppo for the unforeseeable developments of the confrontation underway,” he said. “We invite our friars, the Christians of the Holy Land and all the churches to join us in prayer for peace in Syria, martyrired by long years of war and violence. The word of God of this first Sunday of Advent invites us to keep hope alive for a prospect of peace. Let us take this exhortation and pray that it be achieved for our Syrian brothers and sisters,” Patton added. In Defense of Christians (IDC), a U.S.-based advocacy organisation for Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, says it “remains vigilant” for developments affecting Syrian Christians….
