Prot. 577 /2010D
To: Western Heads of
State
Damascus, 20 December 2010
Your Majesty/Your Excellency, (Mister President)
Please accept my respectful greetings, Your
Majesty/ Your Excellency, (Mister President), firstly on the occasion of
Christmas, as I wish you a blessed Feast of the Nativity of the Saviour of the
world; our world which is, as the Liturgy has it, His world. May I also offer
my best wishes for the New Year 2011 to Your Majesty/ Your Excellency, (to you,
Mr. President) personally for your family and beloved country.
I should like to draw your attention, secondly, to
the recent (10-24 October) holding of the Special Assembly for the Middle East
of the Synod of Catholic Bishops, at the Vatican. You will readily understand the significance
of this event, with regard to three aspects in particular:
1.
The importance of the Christian presence in the
Middle East and the challenges facing it
2.
Muslim-Christian dialogue
3.
The impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on
the two preceding issues, and thus the urgent need for peace.
In two recent letters addressed to the Kings and
Presidents of Arab countries, I outlined this situation and the business of the
above-mentioned Assembly and enclose with the present, a copy of that of 24
October, following the holding of the Synodal Assembly.
That explains why it appears to me all the more
needful that I should address Heads of State in Western countries, to set out
the importance of these aspects of vital urgency for the future of Christianity
in the Holy Land and in Middle Eastern countries and for our living together
and dialogue, as well as for the presence of Muslims in Western countries.
Since everything depends on peace and is linked to
the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Middle East’s ongoing
crises, fuelled by the rise of fundamentalism and emigration, are also bound up
with this conflict.
That is why I am making this urgent appeal to you
to work for peace, as His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI requested in his homily
of 24 October, during the Closing Mass of the Special Assembly for the Middle
East of the Synod of Bishops.
Two papers, illustrative of the urgency of the
need for resolution, are also enclosed: one on The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: brave
peace, the other on Jerusalem, capital of faith.
Three countries have just recognized the State of
Palestine: Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. It is expected that other Latin
American countries will join them. Can the European Union continue to delay
acting on its declared intention on the matter? Europe and the whole West are
very important for us all in the Middle East.
If you wish there still to be Christians in the
Middle East in the Holy Land, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and the
countries of the Gulf, help us to make peace and stop the Israeli settlements
on the West Bank, recognized in international law as Palestinian land!
Christians, from lay-people to Patriarchs,
together with Muslims in Arab countries are wondering why sanctions can be
imposed upon a number of countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Iran, but never any
that affect Israel.
Such a state of affairs feeds fundamentalism and
extremism and in turn rebounds upon us Christians, especially in Iraq and
Egypt: the enclosed papers show that.
Thanking Your Majesty/Your Excellency, (you, Mister
President) for your consideration of this letter and its accompanying papers,
we hope that the year 2011 will bring good news, that is, the realisation of
the wishes and hopes expressed in these lines.
With
my esteem and blessing,
+ Gregorios
III
Patriarch of Antioch
and All the East,
Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem