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| Chaldean Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim, Antiochian Orthodox Metropolitan Joseph and Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan at an ecumenical service in Washington (CNS) |
United in the suffering of their people, five Catholic and Orthodox
patriarchs from the Middle East urged Westerners to take action to help
ensure that Christians and other minorities can remain in the Middle
East.
“Christians are not (just) looking for humanitarian aid. They are
looking for humanitarian action, to save Christianity in the Middle
East,” said Catholicos Aram of Cilicia, patriarch of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.
The Armenian patriarch said a comprehensive strategy is needed to
defeat Islamic State extremism that “threatens the very survival of
Christianity” in places like Iraq and Syria. He said it was essential to
promote human rights, pluralism and religious freedom.
The September 11 panel was part of an inaugural summit, In Defence of
Christians (running from September 9-11), a new Washington-based group
formed to promote awareness of the plight of Christians in the Middle
East, and to lobby US policymakers on their behalf.
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