Syria: Aleppo priest advises Christians to leave
April 24, 2013
Following the kidnapping and (reported) release of two Orthodox prelates, a parish priest in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, discussed his ministry there.
“Car bombs have been found near churches,” said the anonymous priest. “Divine Providence has permitted our fellow citizens to notice the danger and so the bombs were disabled before their explosion.”
“I think that all agree on this point: should we leave the country or stay and keep the Christian presence in the Levant?” he continued. “I, and I say it with sincerity, advise those who can, to go away even if momentarily.”
“Only when there are no longer any Christians here, will I be ready to leave the country,” added the priest, who has declined opportunities to leave the strife-torn nation. “What I feel within myself is this: if I were to leave the country, within my heart I would have a more bitter remorse than death, that of having left friends and children with whom I lived good times and that now, in the time of the storm, I abandoned.”
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