The pontiff received the participants in the ROACO plenary this morning, making reference to each of the areas torn by conflict and violence in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The call for the regions that are being depopulated by Christians and the pastoral concern for the territories of the diaspora. War is a “foolish and sterile adventure.” “Urgent ceasefire. No one wins with war.”
Vatican City () – The Eastern Churches “must be loved” because they guard “unique spiritual and wisdom traditions” that have much to contribute to “Christian life, synodality and liturgy”, as the ancient fathers, the Councils, taught. and monasticism. However, it is a “wounded beauty” because they are “crushed by a very heavy cross” that has turned them into “martyrdom churches”, especially in the Holy Land, where the situation is “dramatic”, Pope Francis said this morning to the to receive in the Vatican the participants in the 97th Plenary Assembly of the “Meeting of the Works of Aid to the Eastern Churches” (Roaco), which takes place in Rome from June 24 to 27. Where “it all began,” the Pontiff continued, referring to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, “where the Apostles received the mandate to go around the world to announce the Gospel, today the faithful from all over the world are called to do feel his closeness.”
In his reflection, the Pope addressed Christians around the world, exhorting them to “encourage” their brothers in the Holy Land and the Middle East “to be stronger than the temptation to abandon their lands, devastated by conflicts.” . He spoke about the depopulation of the places where Christianity was born and stated that it was a “very terrible situation”, of “pain” caused by war, which is “even more shocking and absurd where the Gospel of peace was promulgated.” Addressing those who “fuel” conflicts to obtain “benefits and advantages,” Francis said: “Stop!” “It is urgent to stop the fire, meet and dialogue, to allow different peoples to coexist.” […] to build a stable future” because with the “senseless and sterile” war everyone is “defeated.”
After greeting Card. Claudio Gugerotti, the authorities of the Dicastery and the members of the Agencies that make up the assembly, the Pope expanded his speech to other areas of tension and conflict, including Syria, Lebanon (although it is “the entire” Middle East that is on fire ), and also the Caucasus, Tigray and Ukraine “for which – he recalled – I pray and I never tire of inviting people to pray.” “Precisely there, where a large part of Eastern Catholics live, the barbarity of the war,” he observed, “is brutal.” “And we, brothers and sisters – continued the Pontiff – cannot remain indifferent. The apostle Paul made very clear the recommendation, received from the other Apostles, not to forget the Christians most in need. […] It is a Word inspired by God and you in Roaco are the hands that embody that Word, hands that bring help, that lift” or that alleviate “the suffering of our Eastern brothers and sisters.”
He then invited them to “continue supporting the Eastern Catholic Churches” and to be “an encouragement” to the clergy and religious, and he also thanked them “because you respond to those who destroy by rebuilding; to those who deprive them of dignity, by giving them back hope; to the tears of children with the smile of those who love; to the evil logic of power with the Christian logic of service. The seeds that you plant – he said – in soil contaminated by hatred and war will sprout, I am sure. And they will be a prophecy of a different world, which does not believe in the law of the strongest but in the strength of a peace without weapons.”
The Pope then addressed the issue of the displaced and the humanitarian situation in the Karabakh region, and thanked Msgr. Gevork Saroyan, of the Armenian Apostolic Church, for his presence these days. “Today many Christians from the East, perhaps like never before, flee conflicts or emigrate in search of work and better living conditions: therefore many live in the diaspora,” said Pope Francis, touching on another open issue that the Church must face at this time. It is about the “pastoral care” of those who “reside outside their own territory” and who, in some cases, “due to the massive migrations of recent decades, constitute the majority of the faithful who live outside their traditional territory.” “. They suffer from a shortage of priests and places of worship, and risk being deprived even of their “religious identity.” “I thank the Latin dioceses that welcome the Eastern faithful and respect their traditions; I invite you to take care of them, so that these brothers and sisters – the Pope concluded – can keep their rites alive and healthy. And I encourage the Dicastery to work in this sense, also defining principles and norms that help Latin pastors to support Eastern Catholics in the diaspora.”
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