Vatican City, Jun 24, 2011 / 14:24 pm
Pope Benedict XVI met with members of an Eastern Catholic aid organization on June 24, urging them to concentrate on the survival of threatened Christian populations in the Middle East.
“I ask you to do everything possible,” Pope Benedict told members of the Reunion of Organizations for Aid to the Oriental Churches (ROACO), “to ensure that the pastors and faithful of Christ can remain in the East where they were born, not as strangers but as citizens who bear witness to Jesus Christ as the saints of the Eastern Churches did before them.”
ROACO, which coordinates the work of several agencies providing funds to the Eastern Catholic churches, began four days of meetings in Rome on June 21. The Pope's remarks to the group on Friday – one day after the Feast of Corpus Christi – placed an emphasis on the sacramental life of the Eastern churches.
“Never forget the Eucharistic dimension of your objective,” the Pope told the members of the charitable coalition, “so as to remain within the ambit of ecclesial charity, which particularly seeks to reach the Holy Land, but also the Middle East as a whole, in order to support the Christian presence there.”