Pope Francis Encourages Middle East to Protect Christian Minority
During his visit to Turkey this week, Pope Francis called on Middle Eastern countries to work together to protect Christians in the area occupied by large Muslim populations.
Francis said during his flight back to Rome that he and Patriarch Bartholomew 1, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, both signed a declaration vowing to protect Christians in the Middle East from feeling countries where they feel embattled with Muslim populations.
"We cannot resign ourselves to a Middle East without Christians, who have professed the name of Jesus there for two thousand years," Francis and Bartholomew stated in their joint declaration that was signed during the pope's three day visit to the Middle Eastern country.
During his visit, the pope also sought to restore hope to Christians who feel they must flee war-torn countries, such as Syria and Iraq, due to continued fighting and discrimination against the Christian minority.
"The degrading conditions in which so many refugees are forced to live are intolerable," the pope said in a speech, adding that the church must work "to counter the other causes which are driving people to leave their home countries, and to improve conditions so that people may remain or return home."
The pontiff also discussed the issue of terrorism among Muslim nations, saying it is unfair to categorize all members of Islam as terrorists. The pope added that "global condemnation" of terrorist acts may help curb the assumption that all Muslims have jihadist beliefs.
Francis said that Christians cannot assume "all Muslims are terrorists," just "as we cannot say that all Christians are fundamentalists."
