Syrian-Orthodox Archbishop of the Holy Land Arrested

Archbishop Swerios Malki Murad (left) with the Latin Patriarch
and Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land

(Jerusalem) An unusual and serious incident took place in Bethlehem this weekend. The Palestinian police temporarily arrested the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Swerios Malki Murad, as the Catholic news agency Fides reported. Archbishop Murad is responsible for the Syrian Orthodox faithful in the Holy Land.

The arrest occurred last Saturday night, April 2. According to a local observers report,   Palestinian police officers were on a vehicle convoy, collecting the church representative who was then on a visit to the Palestinian village of al-Khader, to Jerusalem. The diplomatic representation of Palestine to the Holy See announced, meanwhile, that the archbishop was released after a short interview. The Palestinian judicial authorities have not commented on the reasons for the arrest.

Text: Fides / Giuseppe Nardi

Image: Lpj (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

News Bytes -- Cardinal Lehman Refuses to Obey Rome

Cardinal Karl Lehmann makes joke -- 27 Pro-Lifers on the Abortion-Pillory -- Miracle Recognized -- Scotland: Homosexuals Insult Children -- That's What Americans Want

Cardinal Lehman's Little Joke

Germany.  The Old Liberal Cardinal Karl Lehman of Mainz says he would like to see a "Reform" of the Vatican,  to the anti-Catholic 'Deutschlandfunk': "The governing style must be changed."  The Vatican apparently takes too much influence from the local church.  As an example he criticized that the Vatican is "censuring pettily" the German Missal and the work of the hymnal "Gotteslob" [Divine Praise].  That is an "incursion in Liturgical law", which Cardinal Lehmann himself "isn't going to take".

27 Pro-Lifers on the Abortion-Pillory

Belgium.  A combine of anti-life EU-Parliamentarians have published a list of Pro-Lifers.  This was according to the Protestant news agency 'idea'.  The Comrade Community self-importantly describes itself as "European Parliamentarian Forum for People and Development".  It operates as a network, which is based upon the US-Slaughterhouse concern 'Planned Parenthood'.  The list of those from the German-speaking world include Johanna Gräfin von Westphalen, Sophia Kuby, Tobias Teuscher, Gudrun Kugler, Paul Herzog von Oldenburg, Matthias von Gersdorff und Ewald Stadler.

Miracle Recognized

France.  A healing, which took place in the year 1965 in the Marian pilgrimage shrine Lourdes, has been recognized as a miracle.  It was then that the Mother of God healed a lame Salesian, Sister Luigina Traverso, from the Diocese of Monferrato in Northern Italy.  The cloistered nun, born in 1934,  suffered from a lame left leg.  In Lourdes, she received a spontaneous healing.  The international Commission of Physicians of Lourdes described the healing in November 2011 as unexplainable.  Bishop Alceste Catella of Monferrato confirmed the miracle.

Scotland: Homosexuals Insult Children

Scotland.  In Scotland even children are insulted as being "Nazis" or "fanatics", if they criticized homosexual liaisons.  This was explained by a representative of the Scottish Bishops' Conference, John Deighan, recently in Brussels to the site 'lifesitenews.com' .  Deighan's own 12 year old child was called a "Nazi".  The inhuman homosexual network want for a very high level of antagonism against every critic, observes Deighan.  Politicians in Scotland in fear of their careers do not dare to say any more against the homo-lobby.

That's What US Wants

"High ranking political members, the Syrian-Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, Mar Gregorios, knows that the government, party and military will remain as a guarantee for stability and order.  Only President Assad and his family must go.  The Egyptian solution: the president goes, the military will govern and the old power structure will remain."

From an article on the 25th of September from the online-edition of 'Springer' news 'Welt' about the foreign terrorists being spun into a Syrian civil war.

Turkish Government Aims to Destroy Oldest Monastery in the World

Today there is a continuing legal process in effect, while the the over 1,600 year old Monastery fights for its bare survival.  by Marianne Bruckl.

The Threatened Monastery

(kreuz.net) On 26th of January 2011 the systematic dispossession of a Syrian-Orthodox Monastery -- built in the year 397 -- Mor Gabriel in Tur Abdin in south east Turkey began

Today the courts in Ankara gave the national treasury of the district town of Midyat and the Turkish forestry office a significant portion of the Monastery property.

Will the bell of Mor Gabriel be silenced forever? The hope of the Monks is dwindling.

First on the 26th of January the decision of the Supreme Court in Ankara hit like the crack of a whip.

24 Hectares of the Cloister propety would fall in the judgement for the national treasury of the district town Midyat -- irrespective of the documents which proved the Monasteries claims of ownership.

Click on the Slideshow with 14 Photos

The Second Blow

On the 20th of February the highest court in Ankara struck the Monastery with a second blow.

A further 27.6 Hectares of land within and outside of the Monastery wall were given to the office of forestry in Midyat.

A judgment which is a further consequence of an unfair legal process which is aimed on the state confiscation of the Christian heritage and dechristianization.

The Third Blow

The occupants fear the worst, that there will be still further cases filed against them.

So, Kuryakos Ergün -- who is the president of the Monastery foundation of Mor Gabriel -- must appear in front of the court yet again.

The complaint reads that the Monastery wall is not up to code and is built on state owned forest.

The question at present is the judgement of the highest court in Ankara for the destruction of the defensive wall.

One fears that Ergün will be punished.

The Deadly Blow

Despite the protests of European politicians, church respresentatives and human rights organizations against the arbitrariness of the process, Turkey remains intransigent.

The court decision of February 20th entitled the State to the outline of the Monastery wall.

It makes it clear that Turkey wants to drive the old established Christians out of the country.

Without a protective wall, the fruit and vegetable gardens carefully cultivated by the Monastery will be destroyed by herds of cattle which come from the surrounding Kurdish villages.

The surrender of the almost 1700 year old Monastery is an inevitability.

Thus the way would be clear for the Turks to assume one of the last witnesses of Christianity before the Islam.

They established themselves in Anatolia only in 622.

At the same time Turkey wants into the EU

Mor Gabriel is for the Christians in Southeast Anatolia a religious refuge, which up until now has drawn the faithful and tourists from all over the world.

If the Monastery is lost, then it is forseeable that the remaining Christians, who are about 2,500 - 3,000 Assyrians will also soon lose their homeland.

What is so strange is that the Turkish Premier Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was attempting to promote and strengthen the efforts of Turkey to enter the European Union.

He himself felt discriminated against in this instance -- he claims.

Erdogan criticized that it is against International Law to disallow Turks living in Germany of their national culture.

Actually these efforts, which have taken place in Germany, must also extend to protect Christians in Turkey.

If he attempts to prevent the dispossession of the Monastery of More Gabriel he could show, that his intentions are sincere.

He must protect the freedom of Christians in Turkey, to allow Aramaic language instruction and Christian religious instruction and allow priests to be educated.

Whoever seeks the recognition of human rights abroad, must promote them in his own land as well.

Because the protection of the rights of minorities, civil liberties and religious freedom is not a one way street.

It is a duty for everyone -- even for Erdogan.

Link to original, kreuz.net...

Turkey Dispossesses Syrian Orthodox Monastery

Catholic and Evangelical Churches are distraught at the judgment on Cloister Mor Gabriel

Hannover/Bonn (kath.net/idea)Their great concern about the current persecution of the Syrian-Orthodox Church in Turkish has brought the leading representatives of the largest churches in Germany to a common expression.

The reason is the conflict for the property rights for the Cloister of Mor Gabriel in Tur Abdin [Mountain of the Servants of God] in the south east of the country. The recent judgment of the Court of Cassation in Ankara made against the more than 1600 year old Cloister, was explained by the president of the German Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch [Freiburg], and the EKD- Advisory President, Minister Nikolaus Schneider [Dusseldorf] in a public press conference on 9. February in Bonn and Hannover. The court had annulled a previous judgment that the property rights belong to the Cloister and have alienated most of the property of the Cloister to the State.

The Monastery of Mor Gabriel, founded in 397 is the most important Syrian Orthodox Cloister in Turkey. After the interventions of Schneider and Zollitsch were ignored, the Court of Cassation ruled that it is its position is legitimized by valid documentation, which in the lower court were admitted as evidence of property ownership. Now it is feared that the walls will be torn down which overlap the Cloister, and protect against land stealing and grazing. Additionally there is the danger that the baseless allegations against the church's superior, Archbishop Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas and the president of the Cloister Kuryakos Ergun, they had appropriated Turkish State property, which has may still have more punishable consequences.

Schneider and Zollitsch support the goal of the Cloister, to speak against the most recent judgment against the Monastery. They said this: "We expect a solution from the Turkish government, which correspond to the rule of law, which must be filled by all candidates for entrance into the European Union. We ask the German government to employ stringent measures against the Turkish Government so that religious freedom for churches and Christians will be protected and the foundations of their existence may not be further destroyed by the state."

Over 95 percent of the 72 million inhabitants of Turkey are Muslims. From the estimated 120.000 Christians there are about 4.000 belonging to Evangelical Communities. From Tur Abdin in the past ten years there are more than 300.000 Syrian Orthodox church members who have fled to Europe, because the experience of persecution, murder and pressure from Turks and Kurds.

Video available here with photos of the Monastery.

Original at kath.net...

Two Churches Reopened in Southeastern Turkey

Ankara (AsiaNews / Agencies) - After 30 years, the Syrian Orthodox Church of Mor Eşayo and Mor Kuryakuş were reopened yesterday in the village of Midyat's Yemişli in the region of Mardin, south-eastern Turkey.

Mor Eşayo and Mor Kuryakuş respectively of the fourth and sixth centuries, had been closed since the 1980s and were restored by 72 Syrian families, who spent 600 thousand Turkish lira (about 300 thousand euros).

Hundreds of people belonging to the Syrian Orthodox communities from around the world attended the inaugural Mass presided by Mor Timetheos Samuel Aktaş, Metropolitan Bishop of Tur Abdin. In Turkey, the Syrian Orthodox church has 5 thousand faithful.

Tuma Çelik vice-president of the European Syriac Association, spoke at the ceremony: "The Syrians who live in countries far from their land - he said - actually live here in mind and spirit. Want to return to rest in this land". "The existence of the Syrians in Turkey - he added - is not recognized by the Constitution, it should be. If the government build infrastructure to improve the social, cultural and economic conditions, that the Syrians who return will grow quickly".
Sources told AsiaNews that "in eastern Turkey, the Syrian Orthodox community is very active and that Ankara is making positive overtures towards them."

Original, at Asianews.com...