VIDEO: Patriarch Younan Calls on Trump Administration to Help Persecuted Christians
Appeals for “honest politics” and warns against further chaos which is the “worst enemy” for minorities.
The head of the Syriac Catholic Church has appealed to the Trump administration for “something real on the ground, not just words but a vision” and “honest politics” in order to help Christians in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Speaking to the Register at the end of the first ever government-sponsored conference for persecuted Christians in Budapest, Hungary, Oct. 13, Patriarch Ignatius Youssef III Younan said such an approach would allow “all citizens” to feel secure in their countries “without discrimination.”
He said the alternative is chaos which is the “worst enemy” for minorities as above all it leads to a sense of abandonment, making it impossible to convince young generations to stay.
The Syriac patriarch also lamented how the West will only get involved if threatened by Islamism. He also encouraged Western nations to push for religious freedom in the Middle East, and praised Pope Francis for “doing his best” to be a voice “like John the Baptist, shouting in the desert” on behalf of the persecuted.
He said the absence of Christians in the Middle East would be a loss for everyone, not only for the Church, as its heritage is a “richness for the whole world.”
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
