The women are Greek Orthodox sisters who were living in the Mar Thecla Monastery:
Vatican envoy to Syria, Mario Zenari, said on Tuesday that 12 nuns including the convent’s mother superior had been taken from Maaloula to the rebel held town of Yabroud, some 20 km away. “They forced the sisters to evacuate and to follow them towards Yabroud,” Zenari told Reuters from Damascus by telephone, adding that he did not know for what purposes it had been done.
Zenari also said that the nuns were among the last residents remaining in Maaloula after most had fled south to Damascus.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry sent letters to the head of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General urging the international community to condemn the rebel attack on Maaloula and the convent, and to put pressure on the countries supporting the rebels.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, John X urged the international community on Tuesday to speak up in defense of Syria’s Christians.
Contact has been made with the superior, Pelagia Sayaf, who said they have been placed in a home in Yabrud, 80km north of Damascus. There has already been a systematic destruction of Christian homes, churches, and towns leading to the almost complete evacuation of such regions--some being the oldest historical Christian communities. Most likely, the primary aim is not to harm the women, but to faciliate the total annihilation of their monastery. Utter tragedy--prayers for these stalwart sisters and all who are displaced and grieving.
UPDATE: the local Chaldean prelate, Bishop Antoine Auto of Aleppo, says that only five women have been abducted, the mother superior and four others.
Most media reports on the kidnapping, including by the government’s Sana news agency, speculated the kidnapping was the work of the Al Nusra Front, which the US State Department defines as a terrorist organisation linked to al-Qaida. Early reports said 12 nuns were kidnapped.
Bishop Audo told Vatican Radio, “Maaloula is an important symbol not only for Christians, but also for Muslims in Syria and throughout the Middle East, because it is known that people there still speak the Aramaic dialect, the language of Christ. That is one of the reason people are so struck” by the kidnapping of the sisters and the rebels’ capturing the town in early December.
The women took care of local orphans amidst their other duties. We must remember that they are not the only hostages at this time:
The nuns are the latest Christian clergy members to be abducted. Two bishops were seized in rebel-held areas in April, and an Italian Jesuit priest, Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, went missing in July after traveling to meet militants in Raqqa. None has been heard from since.
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