Cardinal, Jesuits express concern about plight of priests in Syria
August 07, 2013: Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern
Churches, has joined the Jesuits of the Middle East in expressing concern about the
fate of Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit known for his criticism of the
Assad regime’s human rights violations but now feared kidnapped by jihadist rebels.
According to the Fides news agency, Cardinal Sandri expressed his “closeness
in prayer” to the Society of Jesus and recalled “the absolute silence that weighs
on the fate of two [Orthodox] bishops and two priests kidnapped months ago, like many
others, Syrian and foreigners, in the same painful condition.”
The Middle
East’s Jesuits also noted that Father Frans van der Lugt is stranded in Homs, Syria’s
third-largest city, amid fighting between government and rebel forces