Chicago, United States – Arab Americans and Middle East Christians have urged Pope Francis to use his influence to rally US public support of their rights during his six-day tour of the US this week.
The pope arrives in Washington DC on Tuesday to meet President Barack Obama, then address the US Congress, and later the UN General Assembly. The pope will hold a public mass at Madison Square Garden and lead Catholic services in Philadelphia before leaving on Sunday.
Arab Americans and Middle East Christians say the pope – the religious leader of more than 1.2 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, including51 million in the US – can influence Christian Americans to do more for Christians in the Middle East.
Leaders of Arab and Middle East Christian communities in the US Midwest agreed it won’t be an easy task for the pope. But they said if anyone can do it, it is the pope, who has already shown sympathies for many of their issues and concerns.
The pope will need to speak to both mainstream American Christians and to Middle East Christians, who are ethnically and religiously divided.
Many Middle East Christians are not Arab, and community diversity has created divisions.
Archpriest Nicholas Dahdal, Economos Pastor of St George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, called the pope “a courageous man who is not afraid to speak out, especially on issues of justice for people”.
“Unfortunately, Americans have no clue about what is going on in the Middle East,” Dahdal said, noting the challenge is to overcome the disconnect that exists between Christians in the US and Christians in the Middle East.
“We need to educate the people, especially the Christian Americans, that as Christians, their roots are in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Damascus, Beirut, Cairo and Alexandria.”
Dahdal, who immigrated from Taybeh in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank, has led protests in support of Palestinian rights in Chicago.
“The pope can send a strong message to American Christians that the Christians of the Middle East are your brothers and we need to protect them,” Dahdal told Al Jazeera.
Dahdal urged the pope to push the US Congress “to treat people with dignity”.(Ray Hanania)
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/09/christians-middle-east-high-hopes-pope-150920112311489.html
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