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Israel Archbishop warns of Christian exodus
Posted by Press Release on 2/10/2007, 1:10 pm
Message modified by board administrator 2/10/2007, 2:52 pm

ACN News, Tuesday 2nd October 2007 – ISRAEL
The Holy Land must always be our home
Israel Archbishop warns of Christian exodus
(With picture of Archbishop Chacour at ACN Press Conference)

By Terry Murphy

A LEADING archbishop from Israel has pleaded with the West to “act in solidarity” to halt the exodus of Christians from the Holy Land.

Calling Christian emigration from the region the Church’s “biggest enemy”, Archbishop Elias Chacour of the Galilee told 400 Aid to the Church in Need supporters in the UK that Christians in the Holy Land were losing faith in their future.

Speaking on Saturday (29th September), the Archbishop told a captivated audience in Westminster Cathedral Hall: “Christians need to impose their presence [in the Holy Land]. We need to say: ‘We are here to stay.’”

The leader of the Greek Catholic Melkite community – by far the largest Catholic group in Israel/Palestine – said that the proportion of Christians leaving the Holy Land was now far higher than their 1.5 percent share of the total population.

“We are seriously threatened by the possibility of disappearing,” he said.
Highlighting the emigration of Christians from Israel as well as Palestine, he said: “My task is to persuade people that they will always be a foreigner unless they stay in Galilee – and I believe you [in the West] are able to make a difference,” said Archbishop Chacour.

He said that since the state of Israel was set up in 1948, Christians in Bethlehem had plummeted from 60 percent to 10 percent of the population and in Jerusalem from 45 percent to barely 7,000 in number.

He took his message about the critical situation of the Church in the Holy Land to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, whom he met in a private head-to-head exchange.

In a statement, the Cardinal praised the pastoral work of Archbishop Chacour which, he wrote, “plays an important part in encouraging reconciliation between all peoples in the Holy Land”.

The Cardinal echoed the pleas of the Archbishop by calling on Christians “to pray for peace based on justice” and encouraged people to go on pilgrimage to the Holy land in solidarity with “the living stones” of the Faith there – the people.

The Cardinal went on to praise ACN, quoting Pope Benedict XVI who said last month that ACN’s work was “an eloquent testimony to the love of God”.

Archbishop Chacour called for Christians to show their practical solidarity with his people – through prayer, charity and even pilgrimages to the region – and to help them to persevere in living in their ancient homelands.

Archbishop Chacour also stressed the need for nations to act as common friends to all Israel’s people, regardless of religion.

“If you cannot be a friend to us [Christians] without being anti-Jewish, then leave us in peace rather than reduce us into pieces,” he said.

Archbishop Chacour, who has established multi-faith schools where Christians, Jews, Muslims and Druze all mix together in his archdiocese, added: “We need to remember how we lived together for centuries – it is not learning something new.”

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