(Vatican Radio) One of Europe's top courts says Russia has failed to protect the hostages of the Beslan school siege in which about 330 people, most of them children, died in 2004, prompting an angry reaction from Moscow. Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: Victims of one of Russia's most bloodiest hostage crisis learned Thursday that their painful-decade wait for justice had not been vain. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia failed to protect the hostages of the thee-day Beslan school siege in September 2004.More than 330 people were killed in what became known as the Beslan massacre, including 186 children. It happened after Chechen rebels took more than 1000 hostages to demand that Russian troops pull out of the republic Chechnya.The Strasbourg based court said Russian security forces had violated the victims right to life when they moved in to free the hostages in School Number One in the town of Beslan in Russia's troubled republic of No...
(Vatican Radio) One of Europe's top courts says Russia has failed to protect the hostages of the Beslan school siege in which
about 330 people, most of them children, died in 2004, prompting an angry reaction from Moscow.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
Victims of one of Russia's most bloodiest hostage crisis learned Thursday that their painful-decade wait for justice had not been vain. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia failed to protect the hostages of the thee-day Beslan school siege in September 2004.
More than 330 people were killed in what became known as the Beslan massacre, including 186 children. It happened after Chechen rebels took more than 1000 hostages to demand that Russian troops pull out of the republic Chechnya.
The Strasbourg based court said Russian security forces had violated the victims right to life when they moved in to free the hostages in School Number One in the town of Beslan in Russia's troubled republic of North Ossetia.
It judged that the use of powerful weapons such as tank cannon, grenade launchers and flame-throwers contributed to the high number of casualties.
KREMLIN FURIOUS
The Kremlin was quick to condemn the verdict describing the court’s criticism as ‘‘unacceptable’‘. Russia was ordered to pay nearly 3 million euros in damages to victims, plus the legal costs.
Yet no money in the world will be able to dry the tears of Emma Tagayeva, one of the many mothers who lost children in the bloodshed. "As a mother it's terrible to bury your children," she said.
"It shouldn't be this way. Having felt this pain, I can't let anyone else suffer the same way.We have to do everything we can so that nothing like this is ever repeated."
She and others may be forgiven for wondering whether the siege could have been prevented and whether so many people had to die in the rescue operation.
Critics say officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, mishandled the hostage crisis and ignored intelligence indicating that a hostage-taking scenario was being planned.
Bishop Robert Pipta of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, celebrates a Divine Liturgy on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at the Byzantine chapel at Wyoming Catholic College, on the occasion of the installation and blessing of the new shrine. / Credit: Julian Kwasniewski/Wyoming Catholic CollegeAnn Arbor, Michigan, May 14, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Bishop Robert Pipta of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, dedicated a shrine and an icon on Saturday, May 11, at Wyoming Catholic College directed to prayer specifically for persecuted Christians. In a response to CNA, Pipta wrote of the event: "To be reminded that the Theotokos continues her motherly care for persecuted Christians throughout the world is of great value to the Catholic faithful in our communities." Pipta celebrated a Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine chapel at the college and was accompanied by its chaplain, Father David Anderson; Father Benedict Kiely; students; and faculty. Bishop Robert Pipta bl...
Pope Francis meets with members of the Syro-Malabar Church on May 13, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 13, 2024 / 16:53 pm (CNA).In a meeting with Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil and members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at the Vatican on Monday, Pope Francis urged unity and obedience amid a long-simmering liturgical conflict that continues to rock the Eastern church.As some fear an imminent schism in the ancient Eastern-rite church, the pope stressed the importance of unity, saying: "Apart from Peter, apart from the major archbishop, there is no Church." He urged the faithful present at the Vatican's Consistory Hall to "press forward" in obedience to the Church, saying: "You are obedient, and where obedience is present, there is the Church. Where there is disobedience, there is schism."What is going on in the Syro-Malabar Church?The Syro-Malabar Church is an Eastern Catholic rite in full communion with the Roman Cath...
Father Timothy Furlow speaks from the ambo at St. Patrick's Church in Portland, Oregon. / Credit: St. Patrick's Church in Portland, OregonCNA Staff, May 13, 2024 / 11:16 am (CNA).A pastor in Portland, Oregon, recently urged his parish to pray for a vandal who defaced the church building with vulgar graffiti, arguing that the controversy gets to the "core message" of the Gospel itself. A vandal tagged St. Patrick's Church in Portland with several graffiti in April that read "[expletive] you, my body my choice," a popular slogan for the pro-abortion movement. In his homily the morning the graffiti was discovered, the parish's pastor, Father Timothy Furlow, told parishioners that he deliberately left the vulgar message visible for the faithful to see on their way to Mass. "I wanted you to see it," he said. "Somebody said, 'Oh, we got to cover this up.' And then I'm like, nope. I want them to see that." "And the reason is because it fits kind of perfectly with w...