Monday, April 17, 2017

SYRIA : 2 Franciscan friars minister in area under ISIS control

Father Michael Perry, minister general of the Franciscans, walks past the rubble of a bombarded building in Aleppo, Syria, during an early April visit to Franciscan friars there.Two of the 15 Franciscan friars who minister in Syria do so in territory controlled by the Islamic State.

As a condition for staying with the families, ISIS imposed upon the friars the condition of removing Christian symbols.

The friars “are living in two villages, 25 and 40 kilometers from Aleppo,” Father Michael Perry, minister general of the Franciscan order, told Catholic News Service.

“They have been able to negotiate space and pay what is necessary,” he said, in order to remain with “those who are too poor or too weak to find another place to go.”