Bells ring out for Mid-East Christians

A French campaign to ring church bells in seven dioceses for persecuted Middle East Christians at the Feast of the Assumption spread to encompass 16 countries on three continents. The initiative on 15 August was picked up in at least 76 dioceses across France and 59 more beyond its borders.

There may well have been more, since there was no central coordination to register every participant. Reports of tolling bells came in from Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Chad, Germany, Iceland, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. Protestant communities in Paris and Reims in France and Lambaréné in Gabon also joined in. Some 28 monasteries and sanctuaries also rang their bells in solidarity, according to groups supporting the campaign.

Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, said in a message to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako and Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan that “this symbolic gesture will not solve the countless difficulties faced by families driven from their ancestral homes, but it may assure them that their fidelity encourages the faith of many in the West”.

The former French Prime Minister François Fillon, who was active in promoting the idea, called the bell ringing “a beautiful message of solidarity and hope”.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will hold an international conference on ethnic and religious violence in the Middle East in Paris on 8 September. About 60 countries will attend, as well as several international organisations, to consider ways to improve humanitarian aid to refugees, and take legal steps to punish Islamic State terrorists.