The Forgotten Churches of the Middle East

For over 50 years since Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church has opened the dialogue of love with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and strengthened the fraternal ties Rome already has in full communion with the Eastern Catholic Churches since at least the 18th century.

One Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Apostolic See of Rome is the Melkite Catholic Church whose patriarch is the successor of Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch in the first century.The Melkite Catholic Patriarch presides over Melkite Catholics in 3 Patriarchates: Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem all of them go back to Apostolic times and are rightly considered Apostolic Churches. The Latins of the West did not have a presence in the Middle East until the Crusades liberated Jerusalem from Muslim hands and installed a Latin Patriarch there in the 12th century.

When Pope Francis visited the Holy Land in May this year, he embraced the Patriarchs both Latin and Greek who were present together with other Eastern Patriarchs and Bishops from the Middle East. But there is a dilemma there. While Roman Catholics in North America and Europe enjoy a relatively high standard of living, their Christian brothers and sisters of the Middle East suffer at the hands of violent Islamist fundamentalists in ancient lands where they once thrived such as Syria, Iraq, and Sudan, and have hardly escaped a tyrant fundamentalist one in Egypt.

The presence of Christians is dwindling in these lands and other Arab countries. In the 1930s, Christians made up 30% of inhabitants of the Holy Land.Today they hardly make up 2%.  Roman Catholics and other Christians in North America and Europe lack knowledge of Christians in these lands. They often confuse them with Islamist terrorists and consequently hardly any donations or other kinds of assistance are directed to them. As an example, the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem receives almost all donations from the Knights of Columbus in America and Canada while as the Melkite Patriarchate receives very little. Last year the Knights of Columbus at Jesus the King Melkite Catholic Church in Toronto were honoured at Supreme Convention with the International Award for the Youth as a recognition by Supreme Council of their initiative "Jerusalem Students" which sponsor students in need that attend the Melkite Catholic Patriarchal School near Jerusalem. Yet the school is still struggling with keeping its students and paying its teachers.

How can the Knights of Columbus assist those Christians in need in the Middle East?