Pope Francis’ ecumenical meeting next Saturday, July 7th, in Bari with the heads of the Churches and of the Christian communities of the Middle East will be “a strong gesture in its essentiality” to strengthen the path of unity among Christians and to reiterate that there cannot be a Middle East without Christians.
The meeting, which will have the title “Peace be with you! Christians together for the Middle East,” was presented today in the Vatican by Card. Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and Card. Kurt Koch, resident of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
The Middle East, said Card. Koch, is the land of origin of Christianity and “it is therefore not by chance that the event that marked the beginning of the “dialogue of charity” between Catholics and Orthodox took place in Jerusalem” with the embrace of Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of January 6, 1964.
“The Middle East, the land of its origins, is also one of the regions of the world where the situation of Christians is most pre-carious. Because of wars and persecution, many families abandon their historical homeland in search of security and a better future. The percentage of Christians in the Middle East has fallen dramatically over the course of a century: while they represented 20% of the population of the Middle East before the First World War, now they are only 4%. The martyred region, the Middle East is also a place where ecumenical relations are stronger and more promising, especially between Orthodox and Catholics.”
