Priest Killed In Syria

From the Distorter.

A 49-year-old Syrian priest and hermit was killed Sunday, apparently when a group of rebels attacked the Franciscan Convent of St. Anthony in Ghassanieh, a village in the north near the Turkish border. Franciscan Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, told Vatican Radio on Monday that Fr. Francois Murad was not a Franciscan, but had taken refuge in the convent when it became clear he was not safe at the Syriac Catholic hermitage he was building nearby.

Syriac Catholic Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo of Hassake-Nisibi told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, that Murad "sent me several messages which showed he was aware of living in a dangerous situation and was willing to offer his life for peace in Syria and the world."

Pizzaballa told Vatican Radio that Ghassanieh -- "like other Christian villages -- has been almost completely destroyed and is almost totally abandoned." He said he believes the only people left in Ghassanieh "are the rebels with their families, rebels who are not from Syria and who are extremists."

I wonder if they were using American weapons. I wonder if the President (or anybody else at the federal level) gives a crap. Probably not, given that we have a history of arming criminals to kill non-criminals, and nobody cared about that either.

It will be something if this continues to escalate. It wouldn't be a bridge too far to imagine this turning into a situation like when Coolidge armed Calles to destroy the Church in Mexico. Assad isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but that won't stop the opposition from using their new toys to murder Christians when they have the chance.