The Pope and the Middle East, Bari a "call to consciences"

The meeting with the leaders of the Churches and Christian communities of the Middle East that Pope Francis will have in Bari, next Saturday will be a "call to the consciences" of the powerful of the world to put end to the violence, according to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, who today presented the event of July 7, recalling that terrorism collects victims among both Muslims and among Christians and other minorities in an area where, according to the Vatican's chief of ecumenism, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Christians of a century have gone from 20% to 4% of the population total.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio will arrive in Bari by helicopter, where he will be greeted at 8:15 by Bishop Francesco Cacucci and by the civil authorities, and will arrive first at the Basilica of San Nicola, where Francesco and the patriarchs will come down crypt for the veneration of the relics of St. Nicholas, then join by bus the "roundabout" on the seafront.

The morning enters here alive. The day of July 7, in fact, explained Cardinal Sandri at the Vatican, "will consist of two great moments: the prayer on the waterfront with the faithful who want to participate in person or on television" at 9:15, and returned at the Basilica of St. Nicholas around 10:30, "the moment of reflection and mutual listening between the Holy Father and the leaders of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities of the Middle East, each bringing his point of view, his observations and his proposals An introductory report, decided to entrust to Mgr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, will be followed by free time.This part will be held behind closed doors.The Holy Father should pronounce a word at the beginning of the public prayer and at the end of the meeting, when the doors of the Basilica of St. Nicholas will be reopened, Pope Francis and the others present will go to the church square and to the free doves this will be theirs. will have been delivered by children ". After the morning, the pope and the patriarchs have lunch together with the archdiocese. Francois takes leave of them around 15:30 and then returns to the Vatican.

There is no provision for a final "joint declaration", explained the Italian-Argentine Porporato, "but the words of the Pope, especially at the end of the meeting, could be guides, points for to be able to situation of persecuted Christians and lack of peace.The theme of the logo of this meeting in Bari is "About you be peace". Directly, there will be no decision concrete, but we hope that those who are responsible for the situation in the world, and especially in this region, can listen and, indirectly, call the consciences not to seek the abuse and the force of the violence but the political solution ".

Sandri did not rule out for the future the possibility of a meeting on the Middle East that also involves Muslim and Jewish representatives but "in this case – he pointed out – we wanted to emphasize the solidarity between Christians in relation to the situation in the Middle East ", which" does not mean to exclude others who are not Christians from wanting peace ". And besides, "we all know," said Sandri, "that the victims of terrorism or violence are not chosen victims: they all fall when there is this language of hatred and violence, when the name of God is Desecrated Many victims are also victims of Islamic believers, and Christians, Yazidis, of different affiliations: the trip of the pope to Egypt with the visit to al-Azhar was a gesture of great eloquence on this common membership to be human nature, and common suffering and attacks on the dignity of the human person for attacks that are both for Christians and for Muslims ".

The Middle East, "land of origins", is also one of the regions of the world where the situation of Christians is more precarious because of the wars and persecutions of many families abandon their homeland to seek a better future, "said Cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. "The percentage of Christians in the Middle East has declined considerably over the century: while they represented 20% of the population of the Middle East before the First World War, 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, "said Koch, who then pointed to three dimensions: the ecumenism of the life, that is to say as Pope Francis has said, the ecumenism of holiness, because "the difficult situation in the Middle East is a call to holiness and a pledge of "Unity", finally a concept dear to Jorge Mario Bergoglio From the beginning of the pontificate, the ecumenism of the blood: "Those who hate faith kill, persecute Christians, do not ask them if they are Orthodox or Catholics: they are Christians, Christian blood is the same me, "said the Pope at the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem with words quoted by the Swiss Cardinal who noted how the concept was taken over the years by the various joint statements that Francis signed with Bartolomeo (2014), Karekin (2016), Kirill (2016) and Tawadros (2017).

Koch concludes his speech by recalling four fundamental "principles": first, "Christians will only stay in the Middle East if peace is restored", secondly, "it is not not possible to imagine a Middle East without Christians, not only for religious reasons, but also for political and social reasons ", third," Christians do not want to be a "protected minority" and well tolerated. They want to be citizens whose rights are defended and guaranteed with all other citizens, "said the cardinal, quoting the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and finally," it is urgent to continue the dialogue interreligious ".

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, the Metropolitan Hilarion representing the Russian Patriarch Kirill, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodoros II, participate in the day of Bari, for Eastern Churches Archbishop Nektarios representing the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Metropolitan Vasilios representing the Archbishop of Cyprus. The Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria, Aphrem II, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Mgr. Hovakim representing the Armenian Catholics Karekin II and the Catholics of Cilicia Aram I, as well as the patriarch of the Assyrian Church are also present for the Eastern Orthodox Churches. from East Gewargis II. For the Eastern Catholic Churches, there will be the Patriarch of Alexandria Copts Ibraham, the Patriarch of Antioch Syrians Ignatius Yusif III, the Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Becera Boutros Rai, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Yerevan. Aleppo Jean-Clement Jeanbart representing the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, the Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Sako, the Armenian Patriarch of Cilicia Krikor Bedros XX and the Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa. Finally, in Bari, there will be Lutheran Bishop Sani Ibrahim Azar and General Secretary of the Council of Churches of the Middle East Souraya Bechelany. Cardinal Gualtiero Bbadetti, President of the IEC, and Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) were invited to sensitize Catholic communities to this event.

A recent phone call over Syria between Pope and Russian Patriarch Kirill a few days before the announcement of the Bari meeting, said Koch, was "another moment, but not the cause, the reason "of a meeting already prepared by" long "time and asked in the past by" many patriarchs and heads of churches ".

More generally, "we are happy that the Russian Orthodox Church is also concerned about the situation" of Christians in the Middle East.

Sandri pointed out that during the recent audience of the Meeting of Oriental Churches (Roaco) the Pope, leaving aside the written text, "is launched in one of his so beautiful improvisations so full of prophetic spirit, he also spoke of epulons: as Cardinal Koch says, the first condition of ecumenism and the life of the Church is the proper conversion, to witness not only words but life. "This applies to all of us and Catholics must apply it to ourselves first, but can we say that this is not valid for them? Orthodox ?, Which is not valid for Muslims ?, Who can despise others? or for the Jews? We can all be subject to egoism and at the same time we can answer this call to serve others ".