wfn.org | Pope calls meeting on dwindling Christian population in the Holy

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Land
29-November-2001
01438

Pope calls meeting on dwindling Christian population in the Holy Land

by Peggy Polk
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II, concerned about the dwindling Christian
population in the Holy Land, has called a meeting of Catholic bishops and
patriarchs from Israel and the Palestinian territories to try to stem the
tide of emigration, the Vatican said Nov. 28.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the prelates will meet at the
Vatican on Dec. 13 to discuss "The Future of Christianity in the Holy Land."
He said the meeting will have "a purely pastoral character."

According to the Vatican's missionary news agency Fides, Catholics number
about 20,000 in Israel and the territories of the Palestinian National
Authority, where Christianity was born. There are only 2,000 in Jerusalem.
Many have emigrated to escape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and seek
economic opportunity.

The Vatican spokesman said that John Paul, "considering the delicate
situation in the Holy Land, wants to repeat yet again his spiritual
closeness to those populations and to share the drama of their daily
existence, too often tried by acts of violence and discrimination."

"The meeting, which will bring together the heads of the Catholic
communities of the various rites in the Holy Land and the presidents of some
Episcopal conferences, will offer the possibility of testifying to the
solicitude of the entire church for those Christians, the Catholic community
in particular, as well as to show the common commitment to the continuity of
its millennial presence in that region," Navarro-Valls said.

The prelates will meet on the eve of a day of fasting for peace. The pope
earlier this month asked all Catholics to abstain from food on Dec. 14, the
last Friday of the month of Ramadan when Muslims fast, and to pray for
lasting peace, founded on justice, in the world.

John Paul called the seven Catholic patriarchs of the Holy Land and the
presidents of the bishops' conferences of North Africa and Western countries
involved in the Gulf War to a similar meeting on March 3, 1991, to discuss
the situation in the Holy Land following the conflict.
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