The reception of migrants and refugees from the Middle East presents a challenge for Christians trying to welcome fellow Christians.
Those fleeing countries like Syria, Iraq, or Lebanon belong to the Eastern rites. Their culture and spirituality are different from the Latin rite, which remains the dominant rite in the West.
From Rome, people still recall the appeal that Pope Leo XIII made more than a century ago to Latin-rite Catholics: that when welcoming their Eastern brothers and sisters, they should help them preserve both their spirituality and their traditions.
CARD. CLAUDIO GUGEROTTI
Prefect, Dicastery for the Eastern Churches
The desire of the Church is that Eastern-rite Catholics not lose their identity, and thus maintain the richness found in diversity.”
Some of them still use the language of Jesus in the liturgy—and sometimes even in everyday speech, in villages… What one experiences with them feels like the origin of Christianity; something we must value, defend, and support at any cost.
Local churches are the destination for many Christian refugees who fled their home countries. The Dicastery for the Eastern Churches stresses that preparation remains the key to success, especially at the diocesan level.
CARD. CLAUDIO GUGEROTTI
Prefect, Dicastery for the Eastern Churches
Welcoming migrants, integrating them into the community while preserving their differences—this is what it means concretely: if I am the bishop of a large diocese in the United States or Canada, what should I do? I should send a priest to study at the Oriental Institute to understand what these churches are, and then appoint him vicar general for Eastern-rite Catholics who do not have their own hierarchy—because those who do usually manage on their own.
It’s essential to identify where Eastern-rite priests can accompany migrants as they move among different communities, preparing catechesis. Where this isn’t possible—because the groups are too scattered—the Latin-rite community must take responsibility for them without uprooting them from their rite.
In fact, one of Pope Leo XIV's first public events coincided with the Jubilee of the Eastern Churches. The Pope emphasized how Latin-rite Catholics must be the first to protect and promote the Eastern rites.
POPE LEO XIV
Let us heed the call to safeguard and promote the Christian East—especially in the diaspora—where, in addition to establishing Eastern jurisdictions wherever possible and appropriate, we must raise awareness among Latin-rite Catholics.
Still, Pope Leo noted that the core issue is bringing peace back to the Middle East, a region that has been at war for far too long.
In recent years, Christians have been persecuted in countries like Iraq, and have suffered instability in places such as Syria, Lebanon, and the Holy Land.
All of this leads to an almost inevitable outcome: many are forced to abandon their homeland, the regions of the world where Christ lived and where the first Christian communities took root.
JRB
Trans. CRT
