The Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations lauded the example of Venerable Geevarghese Ivanios (1882-1953), a former Malankara Orthodox Syrian bishop whose reception into the Catholic Church in 1930 led to the formation of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.

In a 625-7 vote, with 10 abstentions, the European Parliament has passed a resolution on the urgent need to protect religious minorities in Syria, following the recent terrorist attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus. Earlier versions of the resolution garnered less support; these versions included provisions calling for an EU Syrian reconstruction fund and condemning potential American disengagement from the Middle East. With these provisions removed, the resolution garnered almost unanimous support.

“Excavators broke ground on Monday [July 14] in western Ireland to search for the bodies of hundreds of babies and young children, some of them discarded in septic tanks, who died at a home for unwed mothers that was managed by Catholic nuns from 1925 to 1961,” The New York Times reported. Following the 2021 publication of an Irish government report, the Sisters of Bon Secours offered an apology: Our Sisters ran St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam from 1925 to 1961. We did not live up to our Christianity when running the Home. We failed to respect the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the Home. We failed to offer them the compassion that they so badly needed. We were part of the system in which they suffered hardship, loneliness and terrible hurt. We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the Home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry.