Panelists included human rights lawyer and international Christian religious freedom advocate Nina Shea; Father Benedict Kiely, founder of Nasarean.org, a charity to aid and advocate for persecuted Christians; and Anglosphere founder Amanda Bowman, a member of St. Elizabeth-St. Brigid Parish, who served as moderator and asserted, “Evil must be confronted; mere words have never stopped homicide.”
Shea and Father Kiely held their listeners spellbound as they cited facts and anecdotes on the torture, seizure of private property and destruction of many houses of worship affecting Christians worldwide.
Noting that the symposium was taking place on the third anniversary of the conquering of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Shea said: “It has gone way beyond persecution, it is genocide. It is getting a bit better in this post-ISIS era: the imminent threat of death is gone, but (the Christians) cannot return to their homes.”
