Vatican City, Oct 13, 2010 / 17:10 pm
Without dialogue a "new clash" of the Muslim East and Christian West could result, said one Eastern Catholic patriarch during discussions at the Vatican yesterday on the Church in the Middle East.
Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch of the Greek Melkites, Archbishop of Damascus of the Greek Melkites, said in his Tuesday afternoon address to participants in the Synod for the Middle East that living together in peace and the Christian presence in the region are concretely and existentially connected.
Pointing to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the "main reason" for this conflict, he said that the situation is marked by fundamentalism, slow development, increased hatred and a loss of hope among young people who are the majority of the population (60 percent) in Arab countries.
The accompanying emigration of Christians from the region due to this conflict could eventually create a "new clash of cultures, of civilizations and even of religions, a destructive clash between the Muslim Arab East and the Christian West," he added.