First Shrine Honoring Persecuted Christians Debuts in NYC

Patrick Hauf | June 15, 2018
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The first-ever shrine dedicated to persecuted Christians was debuted at St. Michael’s Church in Midtown Manhattan Tuesday.

The shrine depicts Our Lady of Aradin, the “Mother of the Persecuted Church," showing the Virgin Mary and her young son, Jesus Christ, as Iraqis — a country where thousands of Christians are murdered every year. The border of the shrine displays the Avia Maria in Aramaic.

“This is a conflict that has been going on for centuries and will not end until the final victory of Christ,” explained Father Benedict Kiely, founder of the Our Lady of Aradin Shrine.

The artist of the enshrined icon, Mouthana Butres, is currently a refugee in Lebanon after the Islamist State drove him out of his Christian home.

The location of the shrine in New York City has a deep meaning, as the 9/11 attacks at the hands of radical Islamic terrorism killed hundreds of Christians in Manhattan.

“How timely, and how relevant, that we welcome our Mother to the heart of New York,” wrote the Cardinal in a letter to Fr. Kiely.

The shrine shines light on a crisis the media gives little attention to: Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. An estimated 90,000 Christians are martyred for their faith every year — one every six minutes. The overwhelming majority of these persecutions take place in the Middle East and Africa. One report showed that Christians are the victims of 80 percent of religious persecutions in the world.

 

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