The Christian situation in war-torn Syria

From Patheos.com
Christians must do everything they can   to avoid the destruction of Syria's religious pluralism, a Catholic priest forced to leave after spending 30 years in a monastery north of Damascus said this week.
Father Paolo Dall'Oglio speaks with emotion about a country that he says enshrines "the ideal of Arab ecumenism" and the lifetime he spent building bridges between Christians and Muslims in his mountaintop church in Mar Moussa.
The thick-bearded 57-year-old fights back tears as he remembers the thousands of victims of the conflict and accuses the international community of "irresponsibility" which could pave the way for the rise of Islamist groups.....

From OpenDoorsUSA.org
The situation in embattled Syria is getting worse for Christians.   That’s what a contact in Syria told Open Doors.
“The Christians who have a way out of the country are leaving, but unlike the time after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, when hundreds of thousands Christians fled Iraq, the surrounding countries have closed their doors to Syrians,” the contact says.

For the Syrian Christians who want to flee the country during the civil war, there are not many possibilities left. They are trying to flee to countries which have a degree of freedom of religion, but Jordan and others have closed their borders to them.

The contact adds: “Only Lebanon is still a way out. Whoever has the money and the ability to leave is leaving, especially from Aleppo. Another contact person said that there are rumors in the country that the number of Christians has decreased significantly with hundreds of thousands fleeing.”

The population of Syria is an estimated 22.5 million. Open Doors estimated in 2011 the number of Christians at least 1.6 million. “We don’t believe hundreds of thousands of Christians have left the country,” the spokesman for Open Doors says in reaction to the mass exodus rumors.

“Many stay in the country because they can’t go anywhere. Only the wealthier ones can go to Lebanon. Among the Internally Displaced People (IDP), there are a number of Christians, but they certainly don’t number hundreds of thousands.”
According to the Syrian contact, the Christian leaders are “still standing strong.” ........