Support urged for Middle Eastern Christians

ARCHBISHOP GEORGES  Pontier, president of the French Bishops’ Conference, has urged French Catholics to support persecuted Christians in the Middle East, by both sending contributions for their communities there and offering support for Christian refugees who arrive in France.

He recalled France’s historic ties to Middle-Eastern Christians and the history of his own archdiocese, Marseilles, in welcoming them in recent decades. About 100,000 Catholics and Orthodox of various Eastern Churches live there now. Many are Armenians, but there are also Lebanese Maronites, Syrian Melkites and Chaldeans from Iraq. Archbishop Pontier said he hoped Christians would stay in the Middle East but many refugees were arriving in Marseilles, especially Chaldeans from Syria, he said.