Syrian bishops, Catholic leaders criticize U.S. missile strike

From Crux: 

Hours after the United States launched 59 missiles at a military base of the Syrian government, trying to block its ability to deliver chemical weapons, the Catholic bishop of war-torn Aleppo denounced what he called the “reckless” action, claiming it opens “new disturbing scenarios for all.” “The pope and the Holy See are not heard,” said Syrian Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, Vicar of Aleppo for Latin-rite Catholics, referring to the long-standing position from the Vatican against widening the Syrian conflict. “There are those who want this dirty war to continue,” Khazen said. …Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and Vicar General for the Vatican City State, said Friday that “violence is never a victory, no one ever wins. War is a defeat of humanity and doesn’t resolve problems. “It’s through dialogue that conflicts are resolved,” he said talking to TV2000, the network of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. Also addressing the U.S. bombing, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India, said, “My heart is deeply troubled. “The children of Asia cry out for the children of Syria, pleading with God to save the Syrian children from this senseless slaughter,” Gracias told Crux. …Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph Younan, like Khazen, regretted the fact that the U.S. took action before the United Nations had the opportunity to conduct an “honest investigation” into what had occurred in Idlib. “The agglomerate media and the supremacist policy of the USA just want the killing and destroying conflict in Syria to continue,  primarily to kill whatever attempts [there are] to resolve the bloody crisis,” Younan, told Catholic News Service, news agency of the United States Bishops’ Conference. “The Syrian army was fighting successfully to end the bloody conflict going on for long. It did not need any military intervention that would be condemned by international agencies, such as using chemicals,” he said.

Read the rest.