Bishop Malooly is asking parishes to take a second collection Sept. 6-7 for the victims of violence in the Middle East.
A woman who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar sits with a child inside a tent at a camp in Syria’s northern town of Qamishli Aug. 17. Returning from a visit to the Kurdish region of Iraq, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan called the Islamic State invasion “pure and simple religious cleansing and attempted genocide.” (CNS photo/Rodi Said, Reuters)
Father Steven P. Hurley, vicar general, wrote in an Aug. 20 memo to pastors that the collection will be disbursed by Catholic Relief Services and other agencies working with the church for victims of violence in Iraq, Syria and Gaza.
