Christians in the Middle East are facing difficulties ranging from “bad” to “less bad,” said Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem. While describing the condition of the Palestinians in the West Bank as “bad,” he said their situation is better than the challenges faced by Christians in Syria and Iraq, especially those who have been forced to flee homes in the fact of Islamic State militants. Patriarch Twal pushed again for an end to hostilities throughout the Holy Land and the Middle East. “We condemn those who sell (military) arms to help (maintain the war) in Syria,” he told Catholic News Service in mid-July. “It is a pity. We have never reached this level of violence. We preach, we hope, we weep. In all of the Middle East it is not a normal life.” Although the patriarch normally calls the Catholic Church in the Holy Land the “church of Calvary,” he said he sees the entire Middle East in a similar term because of the massive displacement of Christians from traditional homelands across war-torn countries.
Source: Catholic News Service
