Meeting in Bari: card. Koch, “one cannot think of a Middle East without Christians”

“Christians will stay in the region on condition peace is restored”; “one cannot think of a Middle East without Christians”; “the rights of every person and every minority” must be protected, and “interreligious dialogue must be continued”. It is on these four “beliefs” that the Leaders of the Christian Churches and communities of the Middle East will reflect in Bari, where Pope Francis convened them on July 7^th for a Day of Prayer for Peace. They have been listed by card. Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, as he presented the initiative in the Vatican Newsroom. The Middle East, the land where Christianity was born – Koch said –, “is also one of the regions of the world in which the Christians’ situation is most uncertain. Because of war and persecution, many families are leaving their traditional homeland in search of safety and a better future. The proportion of Christians in the Middle East has dramatically decreased in the last century: while they used to be 20% of the Middle Eastern population before the First World War, now they are just 4%”.

“Since the start of the crisis – he said –, the Catholic Church has indefatigably asked for peace to be restored, mainly by looking for a political solution. This call has also come in the form of prayer and fasting”. As to the second principle, i.e. that one cannot think of a Middle East without Christians, the cardinal explained: “This is not just for religious reasons, it is also for political and social reasons, because Christians are a key factor for the balance of the region”. But his involves – and this is the third point raised by Koch – “respecting religious freedom and legal equality based on the principle of citizenship, regardless of one’s ethnical background or religion. It has been repeatedly emphasised by the Catholic Church as a key principle to achieve and keep a peaceful, fruitful cohabitation between the communities of the Middle East”. Lastly, “the pressing need to continue interreligious dialogue”, on which Pope Francis mostly insists in his Letter to the Christians in the Middle East: “The harder the situation, the more essential interreligious dialogue – the Holy Father wrote –. There is no other way”.