Good Friday in Aleppo: Suffering and Hope

Good Friday in Aleppo: Suffering and hope

Fr Tony O’Riordan, who is coordinating the Jesuit Refugee Service’s efforts in Syria, speaks about the humanitarian crisis in the country, and how local Christians are celebrating Holy Week amidst the ruins.

By Joseph Tulloch

Christians in the war-devastated and earthquake-devastated Syrian city of Aleppo are celebrating the Easter Triduum, the holiest period in the Christian calendar, amid the ruins of war.

Holy Thursday, on 6 April, also marked exactly two months since the deadly earthquakes in Syria and Turkey, which left more than 50,000 dead and around 1.5 million homeless.  

Fr Tony O’Riordan SJ, who has been in Aleppo since the disaster, is co-ordinating the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)'s humanitarian response in the area.

In an interview with Vatican Radio he talks about how the country’s Christians – an ancient community dating back two thousand years – are approaching the holiest period of the Church’s year, stressing their “real connection with the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus.”

The interview was published on the Vatican News website. Please click here to listen to the interview.