Syrian archbishop urges clergy to stay in Aleppo despite risk of slaughter

April 16, 2015

The Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, Syria, is urging the clergy not to abandon the city, despite the danger that it could fall to the Islamic State.

“I am asking my priests to stay,” Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart told Aid to the Church in Need. “I am trying to give hope to the faithful.”

After attempts to arrange a ceasefire collapsed, and Christian neighborhoods in Aleppo were pounded by artillery shelling, the archbishop said that world leaders respond to the slaughter in Syria. Noting that thousands of civilians are dying as the world marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, he said: “History is repeating itself.”

 

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Further information:

• Easter weekend attack targets Christian quarter in Aleppo, Syria (Aid to the Church in Need)
• Christian neighborhood shelled in Aleppo; city may fall to Islamic State (CWN, 4/14)