News

CWN - The leader of the Maronite Catholic Church has announced plans for a meeting of “all Orthodox and Catholic Patriarchs of the Middle East, to promote unity among Christians and deal with the problems and suffering that we share in this difficult moment in history."

Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, who is in Rome for the coming papal conclave, told the Fides news service that the patriarchs will form an important network of ecumenical leaders, as a support system for the embattled Christians of the region.

The Lebanese prelate himself has been taking the lead in ecumenical outreach. He attended the enthronement of Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II in Egypt earlier this month; he had previously been the only other patriarch attending the installation of Greek-Orthodox Patriarch Yohanna X Yazigi in Damascus.