ASIA/SYRIA - Children will pray to implore the end of massacres of children

Saturday, 24 September 2016 childhood   international politics   wars   war crimes   prayer  

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Aleppo (Agenzia Fides) - Hundreds of boys and girls in Aleppo, Christians and Muslims, will meet on October 6, to pray so that the spiral of death unleashed in recent days especially on their defenceless children stops in the battered city they live in, and throughout Syria. This is what Archbishop Boutros Marayati, at the head of Armenian Catholic archieparchy in Aleppo reports to Agenzia Fides. The initiative will primarily involve school children. They will also put their signatures and their fingerprints on an appeal to ask world rulers to put an end to the massacres especially towards children, who in all wars are the most vulnerable. "But above all, they will pray. They will pray for all of their peers. And we trust in the fact that children's prayer is more powerful than ours", added Archbishop Marayati.
The bombings and massacres of civilians in Aleppo have expressed, in a devastating manner, the fragile and partial truce declared less than two weeks ago. In this regard, Archbishop Marayati is able to provide first-hand information on what is happening in the Syrian metropolis: "On Wednesday - reports the Armenian Catholic Archbishop - the representatives of the government and the Syrian army convened a meeting to explain that soon an appeal would be spread to the civilian population settled in the neighborhoods under rebel control. The appeal warned that gates would be left open to allow the population to leave those areas, and head for areas considered safe, without fear of incurring in retaliation. In fact, many civilian families left those neighborhoods and were welcomed in areas controlled by the government army, confirming that the appeal had somehow arrived at its destination. For groups arriving, housing facilities were set up for the reception. But it was not a mass evacuation. Perhaps many cannot leave. And the appeal also contained an expiration date, and the ultimatum expires in coming days. New blood will be shed if the powers behind the two warring parties do not decide to really put an end to this dirty war". (GV) (Agenzia Fides 24/09/2016)


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