POPE TO SUMMON SPECIAL SYNOD ON MIDDLE EAST CATHOLIC CHURCHES

Monday Morning
September 28, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has said he plans to summon a special synod of
bishops to discuss the Middle East in October next year.

He was speaking to Roman Catholic Church leaders from the region at
Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence outside Rome, the Vatican said.

"I will not forget the call for peace you have put in my hands… and
my thought go firstly to the regions of the Middle East", the statement
quoted the pontiff as saying.

"I am using this occasion therefore to announce the summoning of
a synod of bishops for the Middle East which will take place from
October 10 to 24".

The theme of the conference will be "The Catholic Church in the Middle
East: communion and witness", he said.

In January, Louis Sako, the Chaldaean bishop of Kirkuk in Iraq, visited
the pope and asked for a meeting to be called on the situation of
minority Christians in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

Attacks on churches in Iraq in July left four dead and 32 injured.

During a visit to the Holy Land in May, the pope urged Christians not
to flee the region and called for freedom to allow them to practice
their religion.

The Middle East’s Uniate churches (i.e., those in communion with
the Vatican) are those of the Armenian Catholics, Chaldaeans, Coptic
Catholics, Greek Catholics, Maronites and Syriac Catholics.