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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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The Melkite Patriarch of Damascus himself, Gregorios III (Laham), bluntly admits that the synod was his idea. Speaking on Tuesday in the Aula of the Synod at the Vatican, he gave a powerful warning about a "clash of religions," if Christianity were to disappear from the Middle East. In an interview, he told our synod observer Stefan Kempis:
"We have slowly grown into this, so it is interesting to see these bishops doing something like this for the first time: most are bishops new to a synod, but they have felt at ease there. I thank God for the really congenial Eastern atmosphere at this Synod: there has been enthusiasm, joy and humour.”
There was at times a lively debate, with many problems on the agenda, such as for example, the emigration of many Christians from the Middle East.
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CWNews.com -The Synod of Bishops for the Middle East has concluded its general discussions, and moved on to begin work on a final message.
On Saturday, October 16, the Synod participants heard the first draft of a final message, and began voting for members of the special council that will be selected to follow up on the Synod.
On October 18, the Coptic Catholic Patriarch Antonios Naguib of Alexandria, Egypt, presented the relatio post disceptationem: the summary of the discussions to date. His presentation took up the whole of the Monday-morning session.
The fundamental need of the Church in the Middle East, Patriarch Antonios said, is “to reawaken our missionary zeal.” The work of the Synod should promote that end, he stressed.
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CWNews.com - Bishops participating in the Middle East Synod have expressed a strong interest in fixing a common date for Easter, to be celebrated at the same time by Catholics, Orthodox, and other Christians.
Bishop William Shomali, an auxiliary of the Jerusalem patriarchate, said that agreement on a common date for Easter would be “a positive sign for Christians and also for non-Christians,” advancing the cause of unity among the faithful. The Catholic News Service reports that the topic of a common Easter date arose “repeatedly” during open-discussion periods at the Synod.
Since the calendar reforms of Pope Gregory XIII, Roman Catholics and Protestants have celebrated Easter according to one schedule, while the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, using the older Julian calendar, use another date. The disparity between dates is a particularly vexing problems in countries where there are substantial populations of both Western and Eastern Christians—most notably in the Middle East.
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CWNews.com - The rights of Christian minorities in the Middle East, and especially in Iraq, were in focus as the Synod of Bishops continued its discussions in plenary sessions on October 14 and 15.
“Churches and minority religions in the Middle East must not be subject to discrimination, violence, defamatory propaganda (anti-Christian), or the denial of permits for building places of worship or for organizing public functions,” insisted Cardinal Peter Kodwo Turkson, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He suggested that in protecting religions from defamation, the UN “should not limit itself to Islam (Islamophobia) in the Western world. It should include Christianity ... in the Islamic world.”
Father Raymond Moussalli, the vicar general of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Babylon, reminded the assembly that in Iraq the ancient Chaldean Church is the object of a “deliberate campaign to drive Christians out of the country.” The Chaldean identity cannot easily be separated from the nation, he said. “We are a part of the history and culture of this Middle Eastern region, and if we were forced to abandon it we would lose our identity within a generation.”
Marco Impaglilazzo, the president of the Sant’Egidio community, argued: “It is in the interest of Muslim societies that Christian communities should remain lively and active in the Middle Eastern world.” He explained: “Without them, Islam would be more isolated and fundamentalist. Christians represent a form of resistance to an Islamisizing totalitarianism.”
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Communiqué of 12 October 2010
Speech of His Beatitude Gregorios III
Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
On this second day of the Synod for the Middle East, His Beatitude Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, gave a speech on the theme of Peace, Living Together and the Christian Presence in the Middle East.
His Beatitude summarised the main theme of his Christmas Letter of 2006 by emphasising what was at stake and the dramatic consequences of Christian emigration, "Christian emigration represents a continual haemorrhage, causing Arab society to become monochrome, an entirely Muslim Middle East, over against a European society called Christian, although Europe and America are rather secularized than believing. If it were to happen... it would mean that any occasion would be propitious for a new clash of cultures, civilizations and even of religions, culminating in a destructive confrontation between the Arab and Muslim East and the Christian West, a conflict between Islam and Christianity."
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CWNews.com - A Coptic Orthodox bishop faces criticism for traveling to Jerusalem, despite a ban by Coptic Pope Shenouda III on all travel to Israel.
A spokesman for Bishop Theodosius of Giza, Egypt, said that the Coptic prelate was in Jerusalem for medical attention—a purpose that would justify the trip. Pope Shenouda’s ban on travel is intended to halt all pilgrimages by Copts until the Israel and Palestine reach a peace agreement.
The ban on pilgrimages creates an odd situation, since the site in Jerusalem most frequently visited by Christian pilgrims, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is admininstered partially by the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Coptic prelates who work there—maintaining a constant presence in the Holy Sepulchre itself—remain permanently in Jerusalem rather than traveling to and from Egypt.
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