London: Prayers for priest kidnapped in Syria

Fr Paolo Dall'Oglio SJ

Farm Street Jesuit Church in central London is hosting a new Syria Shrine at its Seven Dolours Altar to pray for peace in Syria, for its many refugees, and for Italian Jesuit Fr Paolo Dall'Oglio SJ. Fr Dall'Oglio, who has been involved in reconciliation ministry in Syria for more than three decades, has been missing since July 2013.

On Tuesday 8 April Farm Street is hosting a Lenten Evening of Reflection and Witness to raise awareness and funds for the Syrian refugee relief project through Aid to the Church in Need. Lenten music including Allegri's Miserere Mei will be led by the London Oratory Schola Cantorum under their Director Charles Cole, with short talks by Lord Alton of Liverpool and John Pontifex. The evening will start at 7pm and will end with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; refreshments will follow in the Hall. Please click here for more details.

Father Paolo Dall'Oglio (born 1954) is an Italian Jesuit priest and peace activist. He became a Jesuit in 1975 and was exiled from Syria by the government of Bashar al-Assad in 2012 for meeting with members of the opposition and criticising the actions of the al-Assad regime during the Syrian civil war. He was kidnapped by rebels on 29 July 2013.

Before his exile, Fr Dall'Oglio had served for 30 years at the Deir Mar Musa, a 6th-century monastery 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Damascus. He has been credited with the reconstruction of the Mar Musa complex and its reinvention as a centre of interfaith dialogue.