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New York City, N.Y., Jan 22, 2016 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy See’s representative to the United Nations has said that the entire international community is implicated “in one way or another” in the rise of civilian deaths in modern warfare.

“The extent of responsibility goes well beyond those directly massacring civilians,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the apostolic nuncio leading the Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the U.N. said in a Jan. 19 intervention.

Silence, indifference, and the manufacture and sale of arms are how other contribute to the steadily rising number of innocent civilians who are war casualties.

The rate of civilians killed in armed conflicts is staggering, he said, especially when compared to numbers from the beginning of the 20th century.

The archbishop spoke during the U.N. Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

“In the early 1900s, around 5 percent of fatalities were civilians,” the archbishop said, “while in the 1990s, over 90 percent of the fatalities were non-combatants.”

These numbers only continue to get worse, Archbishop Auza said. He highlighted the statistics from the June 2015 Report of the U.N. Secretary General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. That report found “that the deliberate targeting of and indiscriminate attacks on civilians are still increasing.”

He outlined a list of actions the international community should take to put a stop to this “ongoing tragedy.”

First, the “barbarity” of civilian targeting “must be denounced by all without exception and in the strongest possible terms.”

The international community must next use all possible resources, including “the legitimate use of force” to put an end to these practices and bring those responsible to justice.

Lastly, those populations who have been torn apart by war crimes need “all the help we can and must provide.”

Both targeted and indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians result in “clear violations of international humanitarian law.”

“The consequences are there for the whole world to see: huge civilian casualties including many children; massive population displacements; the refugee and migration crisis,” Archbishop Auza continued.

“The use of civilians as weapons of war represents the worst of human behavior,” he added.

“The international community should show itself at its best by conquering evil with good, by beating our swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks, by combating indifference with solidarity, and by rising above narrow national and geopolitical interests to spare all of us from the scourge of wars.”

The archbishop drew from Pope Francis’ recent address to the Holy See Diplomatic Corps. The Pope said that Rachel in the Old Testament shows us the sorrow that should accompany such destruction of life and peace.

He added that the Holy Father specifically thanked Lebanon, Jordan, Italy, Greece, and Turkey “for all their efforts and commitments to save lives and ease suffering.”

“These countries need the help of the entire international community to face the challenges posed by massive movements of refugees and migrants,” he said.

 

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 WASHINGTON-Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on everyone "concerned about the tragedy of abortion" to recommit to a "vision of life and love, a vision that excludes no one" on January 14. His statement marks the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Cardinal Dolan chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"Most Americans oppose a policy allowing legal abortion for virtually any reason - though many still do not realize that this is what the Supreme Court gave us," wrote Cardinal Dolan. "Most want to protect unborn children at later stages of pregnancy, to regulate or limit the practice of abortion, and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for the destruction of unborn children. Yet many who support important goals of the pro-life movement do not identify as 'pro-life,' a fact which should lead us to examine how we present our pro-life vision to others."

"Even as Americans remain troubled by abortion," wrote Cardinal Dolan, a powerful and well-funded lobby holds "that abortion must be celebrated as a positive good for women and society, and those who cannot in conscience provide it are to be condemned for practicing substandard medicine and waging a 'war on women'." He said this trend was seen recently when President Obama and other Democratic leaders prevented passage of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, "a modest measure to provide for effective enforcement" of conscience laws.

"While this is disturbing," said Cardinal Dolan, "it is also an opportunity." Pro-life Americans should reach out to "the great majority of Americans" who are "open to hearing a message of reverence for life." He added that "we who present the pro-life message must always strive to be better messengers. A cause that teaches the inexpressibly great value of each and every human being cannot show disdain or disrespect for any fellow human being." He encouraged Catholics to take part, through prayer and action, in the upcoming "9 Days for Life" campaign, January 16-24. More information on the campaign is available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJwfcefUiU

He also cited the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis as a time for women and men to find healing through the Church's Project Rachel post-abortion ministry.

The full text of Cardinal Dolan's message is available online.
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Keywords: Roe v. Wade, anniversary, Pro-Life, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, 9 Days for Life, USCCB, U.S. bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Year of Mercy, Project Rachel, Pope Francis
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(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Thursday said Holocaust Remembrance Day “calls for a universal and ever deeper respect for the dignity of every person.”

The Permanent representative  of the Holy See to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Monsignor Janusz Urbanczyk, was speaking at the OSCE Permanent Council. Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated ever 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of the prisoners and survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945.

“In remembering the Holocaust, we also remember that unless all men and women are recognized as one great family and unless we coexist with both neighbour and stranger, inhumanity awaits us,” Msgr. Urbanczyk said.

The Vatican diplomat said the Day “serves as a warning to prevent us from yielding to ideologies that justify contempt for human dignity.”

The full statement by Monsignor Janusz Urbanczyk is below

STATEMENT OF MONSIGNOR JANUSZ URBANCZYK

PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HOLY SEE,

AT THE 1086th MEETING OF THE OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL

21 JANUARY 2016

RE: HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

Mr. Chairman,

I join the previous speakers in welcoming to the Permanent Council the State Secretary for EU Affairs of the Prime Minister’s Office of Hungary, Mr. Szabolcs Takács, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and Amb. Felix Klein, Special Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany for Relations with Jewish Organizations, issues relating to Anti-Semitism, Holocaust Remembrance and International Aspects of Sinti and Roma Issues. My Delegation is grateful for their presence and for their comprehensive presentation, which coincides with the anniversary of the liberation of the prisoners and survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, now observed as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The commemoration of this anniversary brings to mind all the victims of those crimes against humanity, remembering especially the planned annihilation of the Jews, and honouring those who, at the risk of their lives, protected persecuted people, resisting the homicidal folly around them.

Every year on 27 January, as we pause in silent meditation, the observance of the Holocaust Remembrance Day invites us to reflect deeply on the significance of the Shoah. With deep emotion, we think of the countless victims of blind racial and religious hatred who suffered deportation, imprisonment and death in those perverted and inhuman places. The memory of those deeds, especially the Shoah, directed against the Jewish people, as well as the planned extermination of Roma and Sinti and other groups of people whom this evil programme treated with outright malevolence, calls for a universal and ever deeper respect for the dignity of every person. In remembering the Holocaust, we also remember that unless all men and women are recognized as one great family and unless we coexist with both neighbour and stranger, inhumanity awaits us. Moreover, the remembrance of the Holocaust serves as a warning to prevent us from yielding to ideologies that justify contempt for human dignity. Today’s commemoration is an opportunity to honour also all those men, women and children who in the course of history, including our own time, suffer at the hands of their fellow human beings who are motivated by hatred; and so too we are all aware of ideologies which, even today, in parts of our world, seek to justify such contempt.

It is disturbing indeed to witness how so many human hearts are still filled with hatred: on the one hand, there is the abuse of God’s name for the justification of senseless violence against innocent people; on the other, the cynicism which shows contempt for God and ridicules faith in him. The innate dignity of each and every person demands that no regime or ideology be allowed to consider and treat human beings as anything less than equals, endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights and dignity. May the Shoah be a continuous call to reject anti-Semitism and to engage sincerely, with deep respect and care for each other, in a dialogue of common understanding, which is the only secure way that can lead us - all peoples, all cultures and all religions of the world – to the desired encounter of fraternity and peace.

It has been just two months since we marked the 50th anniversary of the Declaration Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council, which clearly affirms that the Catholic Church “deplores the hatred, persecutions, and displays of anti- Semitism directed against the Jews at any time and from any source”1. This is the position of the Catholic Church on anti-Semitism, which has been reaffirmed on various occasions by the Popes, who have emphasized that anti-Semitism has no place in the Catholic Church.

The Holy See is profoundly and irrevocably committed to continue working in this direction because, as Pope Francis said last Sunday, “Six million persons, just because they belonged to the Jewish people, were victims of the most inhumane barbarity perpetrated in the name of an ideology that wanted to replace God with man… their suffering, their fear, their tears must never be forgotten. And the past must serve as a lesson for the present and for the future. The Holocaust teaches us that utmost vigilance is always needed to be able to take prompt action in defense of human dignity and peace.”2

Thank you, Mr. Chairman!

1 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Nostra Aetate, 4.

2 Pope Francis, Address at the Great Synagogue of Rome, 17 January 2016.

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Mosul, Iraq, Jan 22, 2016 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- St. Elijah's Monastery in Mosul dated back to the sixth century, making it the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq. Muslims and Christians alike have made pilgrimages to the Chaldean Catholic monastery, invoking both poets and historians to write about its religious impact within the Middle East.

The Associated Press obtained satellite images this month showing that St. Elijah's, also known as Dair Mar Elia, was demolished by militants of the Islamic State, a militant Sunni Islamist organization, between Aug. 27 and Sept. 28, 2014. The AP published the images Jan. 20.

Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, was overrun by the Islamic State in June 2014. In August, it further extended its reach in the regions surrounding the city. The militants have displaced hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims from their homes while slaughtering or enslaving thousands of others.

"We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land," Fr. Paul Thabit Habib, a Catholic priest from Mosul who now lives in Erbil, told The Associated Press. He added that the monastery was "a very important place for the history of the Church in Iraq."

St. Elijah's was located about four miles south of Mosul. It was built in the late sixth century and renovated or rebuilt several times. It was used by monastics until 1743, when a Persian shah martyred the 150 monks who lived there and refused to convert to Islam. The monastery then became a pilgrimage site.

James Foley, a journalist who was to be beheaded by the Islamic State in August 2014, recorded efforts by the United States military to help renovate the monastery in 2008 during the Iraq War.

The Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, Louis Raphael I Sako, told Vatican Radio Jan. 21 that the destruction of St. Elijah's is disastrous and that the Islamic State are trying to “cancel the memory” of Christianity's ancient heritage in Iraq.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, Holy See press offier, told the AP that “unfortunately, there is this systemic destruction of precious sites, not only cultural, but also religious and spiritual. It's very sad and dramatic.”

St. Elijah's Monastery is not the first ancient site to be destroyed by the Islamic State since they declared a caliphate in June 2014. It destroys any non-Sunni religious sites, which it regards as pagan.

By the end of July, the caliphate had seized Mosul's some 30 churches and monasteries, removing their crosses, and looting or burning most of them. The Syriac Orthodox cathedral of Mar Ephraim was turned into a mosque. In November 2014 al-Nasir convent and St. George's parish in Mosul were blown up.

In February 2015 an Iraqi priest told CNA that his former monastery in Mosul is now “a prison for women – most of them are from the Yazidi religion – who were captured and taken as slaves.” And in August 2015, the group bulldozed Mar Elian Monastery, a Syrian structure that was founded before the year 500.

Shia mosques and shrines in Mosul have been similarly demolished.

The group have destroyed several pre-Christian sites as well, including at Nimrud, Hatra, Nineveh, and Palmyra. The tomb of the prophet Jonah, on which a mosque had been built, was destroyed with explosives in July 2014.

It is feared that since the Islamic State does not always publicize its destruction, and information does not flow freely from the caliphate, more demolition has occurred than is known.

Archbishop Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Archeparchy of Erbil told CNA in June 2015 that the Islamic State “have destroyed walls and historical sites, but they were unable to destroy the faith of the community. And that’s the good news. That our people our people are strong enough to leave everything behind and just stay Christians.”

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