News from the Orient - April 30, 2025

This week's News from the Eastern Churches.

Tribute to Pope Francis 

This Saturday, during the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square, the Eastern Churches paid their solemn last respects. Many leaders of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches were present, including Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Chaldean Patriarch, Mar Ignatius Ephrem II, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch, and Mar Ignatius Youssef III Younan, Syriac Catholic Patriarch. Patriarch Youssef Absi of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church sang "Christ is Risen" in Arabic, Italian, and then Greek, and incensed the Pope’s coffin.

110th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide 

On 24th April, the world marked the 110th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which claimed the lives of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Gatherings took place in Armenia and the diaspora. In the Middle East, Christians united in prayer, notably in Qamishli, Syria, and in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem, where descendants of the victims marched and prayed in memory of their ancestors.

St. Thomas Sunday

This Sunday, April 27, the Byzantine, Catholic, and Orthodox Churches celebrated St. Thomas Sunday, also known as Antipascha. This feast, marking the completion of the solemnities of Bright Week, commemorates doubting Thomas’ vision of the resurrected Christ, eight days after the Resurrection, and the moment he placed his finger in Christ’s wounds.