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“Dialogue is important not only to dispel fears and misunderstandings, to achieve peace and security, but also to cooperate in addressing the world’s pressing problems.”
“We inherit eternal life through love and commitment to God’s work. Human plenitude is service and self-donation without conditions.”
“God asks each one of us to welcome Him, to make available to Him our hearts, our bodies, our entire existence, so that He can dwell in the world.”
“Jesus ‘opened for us the gates of heaven,’ says the liturgy, and made it our inheritance: ‘Where He has gone, we hope to follow.’ Heaven is our destiny.”
“The missionaries’ presence is a reminder that we must acknowledge and go beyond our prejudices, fears and indifference, care for the world and become universal people.”
“Squeezed between two extremisms and subject to religious and social discrimination, many Christians prefer to flee from their harsh reality of conflict and instability.”
“Who has a voice has the moral duty to speak up for those who cannot make their pleas heard. And to act, so that evil will not prevail.”
“For the Church, mission is not an option. It is her vocation and duty. A community which doesn’t care for mission resembles more a spiritual club than a Church.”
“I am awed that so many of the selfless people serving the world’s neediest are lowly nuns and priests – notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for the grandness of their compassion.”
In the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, Christians are enduring great hardships and the “little flock” they comprise is shrinking steadily. Squeezed between two extremisms – Jewish (Israel) and Islamic (Muslim countries) – and subject to religious and social discrimination, many Christians prefer to flee from their harsh reality of conflict and instability. Their woeful plight calls for our sympathy, spiritual support and solidarity. They belong to the countries of the Bible. The Holy land, in particular, is the cradle of Christianity. Jesus was born, lived and died there. His disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26) in Syria. Persecution scattered them. On the way, they announced the Gospel to the non-Jews, hence starting the Church’s universal mission. Now, they are fleeing again to find peace and tranquility. While pilgrims from all over the world flock there to find their faith’s roots, native Christians move out because they feel they are foreigners in their homeland. Their mass exodus will be one of the main issues of the special assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops that will gather in Rome from 10 to 24 October. Related issues to be discussed, according to the Instrumentem Laboris (the working document), are: widespread Islamization, lack of political and religious freedom, political instability, the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the need of peace founded on justice. Invited to the synodal assembly are the Latin Church in the Middle East and the various Churches in communion with Rome, born from the divisions of the 5th century and the Great Schism at the beginning of the 11th century. They are different according to rite, geographic location or national allegiance. The Synod is an opportunity to foster their renewal and witness, overcome suspicions and misunderstandings, deepen their bonds of communion and affirm their specificities when compared to other faiths and societies among which they live. The Middle East, being “a predominantly Muslim society, be it Arab, Turkish, Iranian or a Jewish society in the State of Israel,” interreligious dialogue is an unavoidable issue. It requires great friendship but, at the same time, great clarity. In Muslim countries, Christians are considered second-class citizens. There’s a growing demand for the application of the principle of reciprocity and to emphasize the urgency of implementing the freedom of religion and conscience, with the right to proclaim the gospel in Muslim countries in the same way that Muslims have the right to preach Islam. The Synod has relevance also for Christian immigrants, especially from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Sudan. They often have to endure gross human rights violations. Across the region, there are more than one million domestic workers, many of them Catholics, who are treated like slaves. In South Arabia alone, there are more than one million migrant Christians who are denied the right to their religion. It is simply unacceptable that a state known for exporting fundamentalist Islam and for paying for the construction of mosques everywhere behaves in
