Pope prays for seized Syrian nuns
Some worry Christians and others targeted by Islamist rebel militants
“Let us continue to pray and to work together for peace.”
POPE FRANCIS
DAMASCUS — Pope Francis called for prayers Wednesday for 12 Orthodox nuns were reported taken by force from their convent in Syria by rebels. Religious officials in the region have said the women were abducted, but a Syrian opposition activist said they were merely removed for their own safety.
The 12 nuns join two bishops and a priest who are already believed to be held by hardline rebels, deepening concerns that extremists in the opposition’s ranks are targeting Christians. Syria’s minorities, including Christians, have largely sided with President Bashar Assad’s government or have tried to stay on the sidelines of the country’s civil war, fearing for their fate if the rebels, increasingly dominated by Islamists, come to power.
Speaking to a crowd gathered for the pontiff ’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Francis invited “everyone to pray for the sisters of the Greek Orthodox monastery of Santa Takla in Maaloula, Syria, who were taken by force by armed men two days ago.
“Let us continue to pray and to work together for peace,” he said.
His appeal came as fight- ing raged in several parts of Syria including the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels firing mortar rounds at government-held neighbourhoods killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens more, said Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Activists also reported clashes in the Qalamoun region north of Damascus, an area that controls the smug- gling routes from neighbouring Lebanon that help sustain rebel-held enclaves and is also a key transportation corridor from the capital to the central city of Homs.
The region boasts a sizable Christian population and is home to the ancient Christian village of Maaloula and its Mar Takla convent. Church leaders and pro-rebel activists say the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front seized the nuns from Mar Takla on Monday.
The rebels took the nuns to the nearby rebel-held town of Yabroud, said Mother Superior Febronia Nabhan, head of the Saidnaya Convent.
There was no suggestion that the rebels entered Maaloula specifically to seize the nuns.