Sunday, May 19, 2013

There’s light at the end of the tunnel for abducted Syrian bishops

http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Syrian-bishops.jpgLebanese newspaper Daily Star has reported that Boulos Yazigi and Yohanna Ibrahim, the two Greek Orthodox bishops that were abducted last 22 April by armed men who killed their driver while they were on their way to Aleppo from the Turkish border, are apparently being held in a small village North-West of Aleppo.

Former President and Kataeb party leader, Amin Gemayel, announced this during a meeting with Bishop George Saliba and an Orthodox Church delegation, at the party’s headquarters in Saifi, Lebanon.

The Syrian National Council’s interim chief, George Sabra apparently spoke to the president on the phone, reassuring him that the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo Boulos Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were both in good health and still in the custody of a small group of rebels in the Syrian town of Bshaqtin. 

Syriac Orthodox bishop George Saliba also attended the meeting in Saifi, along with Beirut Bishop Daniel Koriyeh, the Deputy Bishop of Aleppo Joseph Shabo and Syriac League President Habib Efram. Mgr. Saliba also contacted the Syrian opposition party leader by telephone, urging him to do what he could to ensure the release of the two abducted bishops.


But when the Daily Star contacted Sabra, he apparently refused to give any further information. The newspaper wrote that during the meeting in Saifi, Gemayel said that the abduction of the two bishops sends out a negative message to Christian communities in Syria and the whole region. Bishop Saliba was apparently concerned that if the bishops are not released soon, fear will spread across the Christian communities in the area.

Last Saturday the newspaper wrote that Lebanon’s defence minister, Fayez Ghosn, was doing his best to secure the Orthodox bishops’ release. “All officials and leaders inside and outside Lebanon should exert more efforts for the release of Bishops Boulos Yazigi and Yohanna Ibrahim who were kidnapped in Syria,” Ghosn stated, adding that “the kidnapped bishops are messengers of peace who always confronted hatred with love and called for justice and truth. Their case must not be forgotten.”
 
The day after the kidnapping, Pope Francis - in his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, on 24 April - and Maronite Patriarch Béchara Boutros Al-Raï, called for a diplomatic resolution of the issue, to ensure the release of the two hostages.