Desert Monastery in Syria
On February 22, gunmen attacked the Syrian desert monastery of Deir Mar Musa 50 miles southwest of Homs, according to Catholic News Service and Vatican Radio. The monastery was rediscovered in the 1980s by Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest who founded a Syrian-Catholic monastic community at the site and who has called for reconciliation in the midst of Syria’s violent civil war. Last year Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro visited Deir Mar Musa and interviewed Father Dall’Oglio about the monastery and interfaith dialogue. Watch excerpts from the story, which will be broadcast on Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly at a later date.
