Pope urges Middle East Christians to persevere in their faith

The pope urged Middle East Christians on Sunday to persevere in their faith despite hardships threatening their ancient communities as 20,000 people filled a Jordanian sports stadium where Benedict XVI celebrated the first open-air Mass of his Holy Land pilgrimage.

The pope was welcomed at the stadium in Arabic by the Latin rite patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, who recalled that Jordan has taken in more than 1 million Iraqi refugees since the start of the war, some 40,000 of them Christians. According to Vatican statistics, Christians are less than 2 percent of Jordan’s overwhelmingly Muslim population.

“The Catholic community here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which affect the people of the Middle East,” Benedict said, speaking in English at the Mass.

“May you never forget the great dignity which derives from your Christian heritage, or fail to sense the loving solidarity of all your brothers and sisters in the church throughout the world,” he said.

The Mass came on the third day of Benedict’s first pilgrimage to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.