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As the unsavoury 'Synod-gate' news spreads and intensifies, let us not lose sight, either, of the plight of Christians being slaughtered by Islamic State in the Middle East. The attack on the True Faith in Rome and throughout the Church, the scale of the apostasy in Western culture and the mass-murder of Christians in the Middle-East present discerning Catholics with apocalyptic signs of the times.
Christians in Libya are still reeling from the brutal beheading of the 21 Coptic Christian men by Islamic State last week. Earlier this month, Islamic State militants also reduced to rubble Mosul's ancient church of the Immaculate Virgin in Iraq. This Chaldean parish church had first been targeted last June, when the Islamists - having violently driven out most of the Christians - tore down and decapitated the statue of Our Lady from the clock-tower.
In the early hours of Monday morning this week, Islamic State fighters swept through villages in Iraq and the Levant, burning churches and houses, and kidnapping between 90 and 150 Assyrian Christian civilians. The abducted villagers include men, women and children.
Around 3,000 villagers managed to flee to the Kurdish towns of Qamishli and Hassakah. A large number have taken refuge in the Assyrian churches there.
Various news sources suggest that the captured Christian men have been separated from the women and held at distinct locations. Islamic State's vile customs of beheading, crucifying, burning, mass-shootings and rape make this a truly disastrous situation.
The group A Demand for Action - a global initiative formed to support the protection of the Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs in Iraq and Syria - has called for international military action to be taken against Islamic State in the Assyrian area.
Let us pray today for these persecuted and endangered Christians. Â
