Patriarch of Antioch and All the East Youhanna X al-Yazigi condemned on Thursday the abduction of 12 nuns from the Syrian historic town of Maalula, urging the international community to exert efforts to ensure their safe release.

He announced during a press conference the suspension of a tour of Arab Gulf states in order to head to Damascus to follow up on the kidnapping.

“I appeal to the international community to exert all efforts to help secure the release of the abducted nuns from Mar Taqla Monastery in Maaloula,” Yazigi said in a televised news conference at the University of Balamand, adding that he had been informed the rebels took the nuns to the nearby rebel-held town of Yabroud.

Yazigi said there was an urgent need for “concrete actions, not words.”

“We do not want decision-makers on both international and regional levels to merely express condemnation but to exercise their efforts and pressure for the release of those whose only sin was their love for their land and monastery,” said Yazigi, whose brother is one of two bishops kidnapped in Syria earlier this year.. [Link]