(Vatican Radio) A 7-year-old Syrian girl suffering from a rare form of eye cancer is Friday being treated at the world renowned Bambino Gesu children’s hospital in Rome a day after arriving in Italy with her family.Falak al Hourani, her parents and her younger brother Hussein have come to Rome thanks to a “humanitarian corridor" project initiated by the Rome-based Catholic Sant'Egidio Community and the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy.Listen: The al Hourani family fled their home in Homs, nearly three years ago due to the conflict engulfing Syria and went to Tripoli, in northern Lebanon.The family’s arrival in Italy is the first of an estimated 1,000 refugees who are being brought to the country in an ecumenical project aimed at deterring people from making the perilous journey by sea.Speaking to Vatican Radio about the family and the project, Sant'Egidio’s Cesare Zucconi explained that, “the Churches together wi...
(Vatican Radio) A 7-year-old Syrian girl suffering from a rare form of eye cancer is Friday being treated at the world renowned Bambino Gesu children’s hospital in Rome a day after arriving in Italy with her family.
Falak al Hourani, her parents and her younger brother Hussein have come to Rome thanks to a “humanitarian corridor" project initiated by the Rome-based Catholic Sant'Egidio Community and the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy.
Listen:
The al Hourani family fled their home in Homs, nearly three years ago due to the conflict engulfing Syria and went to Tripoli, in northern Lebanon.
The family’s arrival in Italy is the first of an estimated 1,000 refugees who are being brought to the country in an ecumenical project aimed at deterring people from making the perilous journey by sea.
Speaking to Vatican Radio about the family and the project, Sant'Egidio’s Cesare Zucconi explained that, “the Churches together with the Italian government is issuing, for the first two years up to one thousand humanitarian visas, so up to one thousand people, more or less, will come from Lebanon, Morocco and Ethiopia in the next month."
Regarding the plight of the family, Mr Zucconi said the family had been living in bad conditions and had no money, just like many of the thousands of other refugees that have fled to Lebanon from Syria.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR has welcomed the initiative, one of a number of private sponsorships helping refugees to rebuild there lives.
Asian elephant. / Credit: Filiz Elaerts / Unsplash (CC0)CNA Newsroom, Mar 27, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).Despite repeated protests from Catholic bishops, wildlife attacks continue to pose a severe threat to the lives and properties of both Catholics and other residents in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. On Wednesday, local media reported significant damage from two elephants in Kerala's Idukki district, alongside a tiger's attack on livestock. This year alone, elephant attacks have resulted in 27 fatalities in the region. Video footage of a Catholic man trampled to death on Feb. 10 made headlines and sparked protests, only to be followed by news of a potential mauling by a tiger of a Catholic woman on her way to Mass four days after the fatal attack. Further fatal elephant tramplings followed the incident.The Catholic Church in Kerala has been leading the charge in urging the government to take decisive action to protect human lives. "The series of shocking ...
Catholic faithful offer prayers during an Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Mary's Basilica in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad in India on Feb. 14, 2024. / Credit: NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty ImagesBangalore, India, Mar 27, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).A watchdog group that monitors violence committed against Christians in India has released a study documenting 161 such crimes in the first 75 days of 2024.These numbers may underestimate the number of crimes and acts of persecution committed against Christians in India, according to A.C. Michael, a Catholic and coordinator of the United Christian Forum (UCF), which released the report. "These figures are based only on the complaints registered on our toll-free helpline number (1-800-208-4545) to report incidents of anti-Christian violence. The actual numbers will be certainly much more," Michael told CNA on March 27."We feel frustrated that despite documenting and making public the shocking data regularly, there has been no re...
On Holy Wednesday, the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land venerated the column to which, according to tradition, Jesus was bound to be scourged. They prayed the station dedicated to the column during the daily procession that the Franciscans perform inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. At the end, they intoned the hymn "Columna Nobilis" and then, one by one, they performed an act of veneration. March 27, 2024. / Credit: Marinella BandiniJerusalem, Mar 27, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).In Jerusalem on Holy Wednesday, the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land venerate the two stones that, according to the Gospel of Luke, were stained with the blood of Jesus during his passion.The first stone is venerated at the Basilica of the Agony, which stands at the place where Jesus withdrew to pray after the Last Supper in an orchard known as Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives.Father Alessandro Coniglio, who presided over the Holy Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of the Agony (G...