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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

CWNews.com - Maronite Catholic Patriarch Bechara Rai fears that the current wave of unrest in the Middle East could cause new difficulties for the Christian minority in the region.

Pointing to the example of Iraq, where Christians have become the focus of violence and intimidation, the Lebanese prelate warned that the same could happen in other neighboring countries. Patriarch Rai has drawn criticism from American and European policy-makers by expressing concern that the “Arab Spring” uprising in Syria could be dangerous to Christians there.

The Maronite Patriarch calls for caution about the uprisings in the Islamic world, saying that they could lead to civil war or usher in “regimes that are even more fundamentalist.” If that happens, he says, “this will not be a ‘spring.’ It will rather be a ‘winter.’”

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

CWNews.com - In a noteworthy ecumenical gesture, representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will join with their Catholic counterparts in delivering a Christmas tree to the Vatican.

Each year, the giant Christmas tree that is displayed in St. Peter's Square comes from a different European country. This year the tree will come from Ukraine.

After a meeting with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, a leading representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Alexander, announced that he would join in the trip to Rome for the ceremonial presentation of the tree.

The ecumenical gesture is particularly significant because the Byzantine-Ukrainian Catholic Church has been the focus of ecumenical tensions, with the Russian Orthodox Church and its Ukrainian affiliate complaining about the vigorous Catholic presence there. Archbishop Alexander is the chief ecumenical officer of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow patriarchate.

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

CWNews.com - The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt has discouraged calls for an international probe into the massacre of Christians in Cairo.

Pope Shenouda III said that intervention by outside nations would be a setback for "the national unity that we are all defending."

Relatives of the massacre victims have called for an independent investigation to establish whether government forces deliberately targeted Christian demonstrators. The Coptic Pope has sought to quiet protests and ease the strain in relations between the Christian minority and the Egyptian military government.

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Bishop Blase Cupich, Bishop of Spokane (WA, USA), Member Subcommittee Aid to the Church in Eastern Europe AJC, and Dr. Declan Murphy, associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office of National Collections and director of the Collection for Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, will visit Ukraine for 12 days.

The American bishops visit Ukraine, in particular the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, as part of a wider visit to Central and Eastern Europe. The visit will consist of two parts: first they will visit Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Odessa; and then Lviv, Stry, Uzhhorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kolomyia.

According to Bishop Bohdan, in Ukraine the guests will become familiar with the state of the development of the Catholic Church of the Latin and Eastern Rites.

The visit began in Kyiv on October 18 with a meeting with Patriarch Sviatoslav. On October 19, the guests will meet with members of the office of the Kyiv Archeparchy of the UGCC, and then the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC. On the same day they will visit the UGCC Patriarchal Center.

“From our side this visit will give us an opportunity to personally thank the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and all U.S. Catholics for their solidarity with our church, which was persecuted for decades. Today, their fraternal support for our pastoral efforts is very valuable, because we can realize many pastoral projects and reestablish our structure in Ukraine,” said the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, reported the Information Department of the UGCC.

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Caracas, 13 October 2011

(Second report)

Patriarch Gregorios III is continuing his pastoral visit to Venezuela, heading a delegation of bishops and priests of the Melkite Greek Catholic community.

On 11 October His Beatitude answered questions from a journalist of the state channel, “Canal 8,” the country’s biggest broadcaster. This half-hour interview touched on several topics of which the chief were:

1-  The aim of the trip: His Beatitude firstly emphasised that the pastoral aspect of his visit is to find out the situation of the Melkite Church’s members and encourage them to live their important role in Venezuelan society as witnesses and missionaries of the Church. This visit is also focused on holding the Eighth Congress of bishops of the diaspora on the theme of the “New Evangelisation.”

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

“Peace in the Middle East is the key to world peace,”

says Patriarch Gregorios III on pastoral visit to Venezuela

Caracas, 10 October 2011

(First report)

The Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, Gregorios III (Laham) on a pastoral visit to Venezuela, declared on his arrival, "Peace in the Middle East is the key to world peace, because the Holy Land must acquire stability and security, for Christians to remain in the region. Christians are the children of peace, messengers of peace, and if long-term conflicts persist, that will affect them directly, which is the biggest challenge that Eastern Christians are facing today."

Patriarch Gregorios III is at the head of a delegation composed of the Superior General of the Aleppine Basilian Order Archimandrite Najib Tobji, the head of the patriarchal summer residence at Ain Traz, Archimandrite Nicolas Hakim and Patriarchal Chancellor Father Antony Dib, B.S. This pastoral visit will include all Venezuela’s regions, where Melkite Greek Catholic faithful have been living since the end of the nineteenth century. They are organised into nineteen regions, among which are many well-to-do industrialists and businessmen.