Being a Christian in the Middle East: "We are less than half a million, tomorrow we may be 300, or even less"
"The presence of the Eastern Churches is threatened and they see no future in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, because of political, economic, cultural and other challenges."
Last week, a conference entitled "Rooted in Hope" was held in Cyprus with 250 delegates from all the Catholic Churches in the Middle East.
Present on the spot, Bishop Gugerotti underlined the “great vitality” of the Churches and their desire to be “holy, witnesses, free, active and vibrant”. He said the churches were present in the Middle East, a "region torn by violence and conflict", by "choice" and "calling" and not "just as a right".
The Babylonian Patriarch of the Chaldeans, Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, was also in Cyprus on this occasion. He, for his part, referred to Vatican News threats to these churches.
"We must support Christians so that they do not leave, we must help them not to emigrate. It will be really serious if the Middle East is emptied of its Christians and if the roots of Christianity are no longer there. presence of the Eastern Churches is threatened and they see no future in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, because of political, economic, cultural and other challenges."
Cardinal Sako then compares the churches of the West and the East.
"In the West, there is a lack of religious and human values, there is secularization and life is emptied of all sanctity. In the East, on the other hand, there is fundamentalism, which turns into terror and terrorism , and we are threatened, we are marginalized. Our homes, our properties, our villages are occupied, and then there is the demographic question."
"We have to separate religion from the state," he says.
"Everyone talks about human rights, but we are not treated the same as Muslims, with the same rights and the same duties. Instead of creating democratic and civilized states, they have erected barriers "We must separate religion from the state. All of this requires diplomatic and political support, including external support, for Christians, who today face persecution."
"We are less than half a million, tomorrow we may be 300 or even less", he concludes, "today we are lost, we are disappointed and we have no strength".
MC
