Scottish Catholic Observer

Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, Syria, (above left) said that Christians there want only ‘peace, reconciliation. They don’t want to be on one side or the other side.’

“This is our message of reconciliation,” he said. “We have to respect each other and to develop the sense of citizenship and accept the differences of the others. Not to oblige everybody to follow my way of thinking or a particular way of living.”

In asking Christians to pray for peace in his country, Bishop Audo said the conflict in Syria is not simply an internal one.

“There is an international level, a regional level, so everybody has to do what he can to ask for peace and reconciliation,” he said. “War is not the solution.”

The bishop also said the Church is doing its best to help the needy and the poor in Aleppo which has been at the centre of the conflict in Syria, now in it’s second year.

“We are helping (the poor families) with different programs, the children with different activities with centres in different parts of the city, with Caritas and other organisations,” he said.

Besides peace, the bishop said the greatest need of the people of Aleppo is fuel.

“It is very cold in Aleppo,” he said. “We don’t have any fuel… it’s very expensive. Especially for the hospitals, the schools, of course in the houses—it’s really a real problem, this problem of fuel. And we don’t have electricity and we have to use generators which require fuel and it’s very expensive.”