St. Louis, Mo., Aug 10, 2017 / 23:03 pm
After the Syrian city of Aleppo lost over half its Christian population during the conflict among government forces and various rebel groups, its Melkite archbishop is determined to rebuild from the ashes.
"Dear friends, I am determined now, more than ever – and like I have never done before – to apply myself and to act in order to restore the Christian prestige of our ancestral city, Aleppo, pearl of the East and the West, cradle of the civilizations and Christianity, the birthplace of cultures," Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo said at the Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention Aug. 2.
"I am determined more than ever to stand by our young people in that devastated place to help them rebuild what was destroyed and recover what was lost," he said.
Archbishop Jeanbart addressed Knights from all over the world at the organization's 135th Supreme Convention in St. Louis. The see of his archdiocese has been decimated in the more than six year-long Syrian civil war, culminating in the final push of pro-government forces to take back the city from rebel forces, which they successfully did in December.