Lebanese Christians to meet the Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in May 2009. a synod in Rome to support the Christians of Lebanon and the Middle East
Pope Benedict XVI opens a synod today Catholic bishops from the Middle East, hoping to stop the continuing exodus of Christian minorities, to encourage greater cohesion among their different churches and improve their relations with their Muslim environment. Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir Bishop visited the Vatican to there to represent the Christians of Lebanon, as the preparatory document for the Synod, "are divided politically and religiously."
Gathered for two weeks in Rome, the bishops will discuss the problems of the faithful of the region in the context of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the continuing sectarian violence in Iraq, the political crisis in Lebanon and the economic crisis and rivalries between the various "chapels" Catholics.
The participants, who are all under the authority of Rome, will discuss more broadly the general decline in the presence of all Christians, including those of Protestant and Orthodox churches, which face the same challenges that Catholics, including intolerance and persecution .
While a century ago there were 20% Christians in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, they are little more than 5% of the total population of the region overwhelmingly Muslim, and this proportion continues to decline, although the situation of the faithful varies from one country to another. "If this continues, Christianity will disappear in the Middle East," said Reverend Father Egyptian Jesuit Samir Khalil Samir, based in Beirut that helped draft working documents on which the Synod of Catholic Bishops will discuss the Middle East from October 10 to 24. "This is not an unrealistic assumption," he argued before the press by citing a precedent: "The proportion of Christians in Turkey increased from 20% in the early twentieth century to 0.2% today" . He said the exodus of Christians since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 "could completely dry up the local church."
UNION AGAINST THE "CURRENT EXTREMIST"
Gathered for two weeks in Rome, the bishops will discuss the problems of the faithful of the region in the context of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the continuing sectarian violence in Iraq, the political crisis in Lebanon and the economic crisis and rivalries between the various "chapels" Catholics.
The participants, who are all under the authority of Rome, will discuss more broadly the general decline in the presence of all Christians, including those of Protestant and Orthodox churches, which face the same challenges that Catholics, including intolerance and persecution .
While a century ago there were 20% Christians in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, they are little more than 5% of the total population of the region overwhelmingly Muslim, and this proportion continues to decline, although the situation of the faithful varies from one country to another. "If this continues, Christianity will disappear in the Middle East," said Reverend Father Egyptian Jesuit Samir Khalil Samir, based in Beirut that helped draft working documents on which the Synod of Catholic Bishops will discuss the Middle East from October 10 to 24. "This is not an unrealistic assumption," he argued before the press by citing a precedent: "The proportion of Christians in Turkey increased from 20% in the early twentieth century to 0.2% today" . He said the exodus of Christians since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 "could completely dry up the local church."
UNION AGAINST THE "CURRENT EXTREMIST"
Rather than simply a call for additional aid Catholics in the region, officials in charge of preparations for the synod have preferred to emphasize the need for radical social change to emerge from the secular states, promoting interfaith cooperation and halt the rise of Islamism. "What is at stake is the revival of Arab societies", which challenged the Western modernism, tend to confuse between the Arab and Muslim identities, while the local Christians are mostly Arab, too said Father Samir. "We need Catholics, along with their fellow Christians and thinkers and reformists Muslims are able to support initiatives to examine carefully the concept of 'positive secularism' of the State, "a paper submitted to the synod.
" This could help eliminate the theocracy government and allow more greater equality between citizens of different religions, encouraging the promotion of healthy democracies, and by nature, a positive secular. "The text submitted to the synod mainly attributed the exodus of Christians from the Middle East to local political tensions." Today, emigration is particularly due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the resulting instability across the region. "But he notes that" threatening social situation in Iraq, which fled half of 850 000 local Christians since 2003, and "political instability in Lebanon" have also contributed to the exodus the faithful.
Moreover, the rise of radical Islamism since the 1970s threatens the entire region, say the authors of the text by highlighting the need for joint action against "these extremist movements, which clearly threaten the entire world, Christians and Muslims alike. "
PRESENCE OF AN Iranian ayatollahs
Weakening Christianity in the region is also attributable to its own divisions, often very old. Thus the only Catholic churches are torn between Latin, Coptic, Maronite, Armenian, Syriac, Chaldean and Greek Melkite. The document encourages these different "chapels" rival to work hand in hand and with other Christian churches to raise the voice of Christianity in the Middle Eastern company.
The Vatican will also advise the churches under its control to simplify their various liturgies of much use to the Arabic language during religious services, in the spirit of Vatican II, which dates back fifty years. To better illustrate the necessary openness of the churches of the Middle East, the Vatican called an Iranian ayatollah to the synod, a Lebanese Muslim cleric and a rabbi from Jerusalem to attend the debate and will address the 250 participants expected. "I do not know if people in the West realize how the thematic agenda of the synod are totally new for much of the Church in the Middle East. For thirteen centuries, it was live Christians in the region in a kind of socio-economic ghetto, "said Reverend Franciscan Father David Jaeger, a specialist the region. "If we can do something with other Christians, it's better than doing it alone. If we as Christians can do something more with Muslims, even better," summed up his hand to the father Samir.
Source: L'Orient Le Jour
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