Pope urges Middle East Christians to persevere in faith
The Pope was welcomed at the stadium in Arabic by the Latin rite patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, who recalled that Jordan has taken in more than one million Iraqi refugees since the start of the war, some 40,000 of them Christians. According to Vatican statistics, Christians are less than 2% of Jordan’s overwhelmingly Muslim population.
“The Catholic community here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which affect the people of the Middle East,” Pope Benedict said, speaking in English at the Mass.
“May you never forget the great dignity which derives from your Christian heritage, or fail to sense the loving solidarity of all your brothers and sisters in the church throughout the world,” he said.
The Pope’s week-long Holy Land pilgrimage is his first trip as pope to the Middle East – where he has faced sharp criticism by both Muslims and Jews.
He angered many in the Muslim world three years ago when he quoted a Medieval text that characterised some of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed’s teachings as “evil and inhuman”, particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith”. When he arrived in Jordan on Saturday, Pope Benedict expressed his “deep respect” for Islam and hoped the Catholic Church would be a force for peace.
The Pope will also have to tread carefully when he arrives in Israel today for the final four-day leg of his tour, which will also bring him to the Palestinian territories. Earlier this year, Pope Benedict sparked outrage among Jews when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.
