Christians in the Holy Land and Middle East have suffered increased persecution in recent years, leading to a severe decline in their numbers in the region.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Amid concerns for the future of Christianity in the Holy Land, Pope Leo XIV today urged Christians in the Middle East to “remain in their native lands.”
“I would like to thank God for all those who, in silence, prayer and self-sacrifice, are sowing seeds of peace,” said Leo XIV at the Vatican today.
In the second mass-attended audience of his pontificate, Leo welcomed pilgrims at the Vatican for the Jubilee of Oriental Churches taking place this week. Echoing his already prominent theme of calling for and end to the numerous conflicts raging around the world, the new Pope also encouraged Middle Eastern Christians to hold firm and remain in their homeland.
I thank God for those Christians – Eastern and Latin alike – who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them. Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!
In recent years, the number of Christians in the Middle East has suffered a significant decline, as attested to by numerous reports and research groups. Persecutions of Christians at the hands of Muslims and Jews have been documented, especially as conflicts in the Holy Land region have drastically escalated in recent years.
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Those of the Christian communities who have chosen to remain have faced significant persecution and hardship.
But Leo highlighted such a physical presence in their home nations as a witness to the faith:
Thank you, dear brothers and sisters of the East, the lands where Jesus, the Sun of Justice, dawned, for being “lights in our world."
Continue to be outstanding for your faith, hope, and charity, and nothing else. May your Churches be exemplary, and may your Pastors promote communion with integrity, especially in the Synods of Bishops, that they may be places of fraternity and authentic co-responsibility.
Quoting from St. Symeon, Leo also urged that the Middle Eastern Christians practice a detachment from “worldly power or appearance,” and thus remain “faithful in obedience and in evangelical witness.”
Advocacy group “persecution.org” wrote last year that “places such as Iraq, Syria, the Palestinian Territories, and, to a lesser degree, Egypt and Lebanon have seen a continuation of the historic exodus of Christians during the past decade alone. The decline is especially significant when one considers that these communities are among the oldest Christian communities in the world.”
The Christian population of Iraq and Syria has “shrunk by somewhere between 75% to 85% in the past 20 years, and Palestine’s Christian community is finding itself at threat, highlighted by Gaza’s Christians suffering near extinction in the latest Israeli-Palestinian war,” the group reported.
In the few addresses he has had occasion to deliver since his election last Thursday, Leo has emphasized the importance of delivering peace across the world.
Speaking to the Jubilee pilgrims, the Pope reaffirmed his personal and official determination to fulfill this goal:
For my part, I will make every effort so that this peace may prevail. The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace. The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate! War is never inevitable.
Peace so far has appeared to be difficult to achieve in the Holy Land region, and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem – Pierbattista Cardinal Pizzaballa – has repeatedly urged that leaders drop their opposition to each other to work out a peace plan.
Recently having returned to Jerusalem, the cardinal re-iterated these hopes and expressed his solidarity with Christians in Syria.
