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A fire that ripped through a wedding venue in northern Iraq has killed more than 100 people in a majority-Christian town still rebuilding after years of ISIS occupation. The hall in Qaraqosh on the Nineveh Plains burned Tuesday night during a Syriac Catholic wedding celebration. Witnesses and civil defense officials told the BBC that the fire was sparked, with hundreds of guests present, by fireworks set off as the bride and groom danced. Archbishop Bashar Warda, who leads the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil, said in a statement to EWTN News that “patriarchs, bishops, and priests from all faiths gathered today in Qaraqosh to bury those who had perished.” “No words can adequately describe the mourning of those bringing their loved ones to their final resting places in their ancient land. What was to be a time of joy has now turned into a whole community into mourning and deep shock,” the archbishop, for years an outspoken advocate for the Middle East’s persecuted Christian minority, told EWTN News. “I ask for your prayers for those souls we have lost and the severely injured. I ask you to pray for the Syriac community and their families within Iraq and the diaspora.” Iraqi authorities are investigating the disaster.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255500/breaking-iraq-archbishop-calls-for-prayers-after-tragic-wedding-fire
The Maryland attorney general’s office on Tuesday released an unredacted report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore that names most of the individuals accused.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255499/names-of-accused-in-maryland-ag-s-sex-abuse-report-on-baltimore-archdiocese-are-released
Ruben Vardanyan, a former high-ranking official in the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, was arrested by Azerbaijan authorities on Sept. 27 as he attempted to flee the region along with over 50,000 other ethnic Armenian refugees.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255496/former-nagorno-karabakh-armenian-leader-arrested-as-over-50000-refugees-flee-region
On the second day of the 2023 Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), a bishops’ committee provided recommendations on diocesan policies that are focused on protecting minors and vulnerable adults to all the bishops in attendance.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255493/canadian-bishops-address-protection-of-minors-vulnerable-adults-at-meeting
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Wenceslaus, a Central European ruler who died at the hands of his brother while seeking to strengthen the Catholic faith in his native Bohemia.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-wenceslaus-608