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WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2014 (SINA) — For the first time in history, five Christian Patriarchs representing Christian communities in the Middle East visited the White House to discuss the protection of Christians in theMiddle East with President Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
In Defense of Christians President Toufic Baaklinisaid, “We want to thank President Obama at this critical moment in history for meeting with the representatives of these Christian communities from the Middle East who face suffering and hardship for professing their religious beliefs.”
Attending the meeting with the President are:
His Eminence, Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Raï
Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
His Beatitude, Gregorius III Laham
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem
His Beatitude, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II
Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch
His Beatitude, Ignatius Youssef III Yonan
Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
His Beatitude, Aram I Keshishian
Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church
His Eminence the Most Reverend Metropolitan Joseph Al-Zehlaoui
Archbishop of New York and All North America of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church
(Official representative of His Beatitude Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X of Antioch and all the East)
His Grace Bishop Angaelos,
General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church ofAlexandria
(Official representative of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, the 118th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Apostolic See of St. Mark the Evangelist of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria)
His Excellency Ibrahim, Ibrahim
Bishop Emeritus of Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle
(Official representative of His Beatitude Louis Rahphael Sako I, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon and the Head of the Chaldean Catholic Church)
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ReplyDeleteDear dmw,
DeleteI mean this with absulutely no ill-will or condescension, but that comment seems quite distasteful if not completely disrespectful to all our suffering fellow Christian's in the Middle East, who are experiencing terrible persecution.
Everyone on the right side of the table is certainly educated & experienced enough to recognize the core issue & they're all more than capable of respecting the diverse cultural & religious traditions of the people on the left side of the table.
This isn't a 7th grade classroom, so please refrain from making degrading comments.
My point, which I have deleted lest my irony be misunderstood, was precisely to say that those on the right are certainly NOT educated and experienced enough to recognize the core issue. Having heard the President's address and seeing the nonsense that came from Cruz, my point is that our hope for the Christian East against Islam surely cannot be found in the American political system.
DeleteEveryone on the right side of the table is certainly educated & experienced enough to recognize the core issue & they're all more than capable of respecting the diverse cultural & religious traditions of the people on the left side of the table.
ReplyDeleteI think you're giving them too much credit. These are people from the same cut of cloth as the British and French bureaucrats who drew lines on maps and wrote incoherent political charters for their friends and ignored everybody else.
What the people on the right are mainly concerned with is maintenance of the status quo. There are four countries struggling to be born where a rump Iraq and Syria currently exist and we in the US have no understanding of the place.
I do not know what to tell my Christian brothers in the region. This has been brewing for decades and can only end with bloodshed and the borders redrawn to reflect the ethnic and creedal facts on the ground. If anybody can think of something different I will be delighted to be proved wrong. Maybe a safe area can be carved out for Christians but that was actually the French intent for Lebanon as well. The Christians forgot to have kids and found it easier just to move to Europe and the Americas.
The President at least managed to meet with the Patriarchs and bishops in a respectful manner unlike the unfortunate behavior of the Texas senator.
ReplyDeleteIs it too late for Obama to do what Bush should have done?. Bush should have given the Assyrians their own state.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this what Turkey did to Cyprus?