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Vatican City – (Agenzia Fides) – Today, violent conflict seems to be raging in the Christian East "with a diabolical intensity previously unknown". And precisely in those lands, now covered “by a cloud of hatred that renders the air unbreathable and toxic,” the faith, hope, and charity of so many Eastern Christians can shine more brightly - "the People of God who persevere by looking up to heaven," who preserve a “sense of the sacred, and their spirituality, redolent of the divine mysteries,” and who can even help and enlighten the path of Christian communities in the West, where “the faith is in danger of becoming lifeless.”
These were the words of Pope Leo XIV, addressed to participants in the plenary assembly of ROACO, the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches, whom he received today in audience in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. His message was an act of fatherly gratitude for the testimony of faith shown by Eastern Christians, who see “the seeds of the Gospel taking root in the desert” even amid atrocious violence, such as “the recent terrible attack on the Church of Saint Elias in Damascus” (see Fides, 23/6/2025).
The Pope’s ‘thank you’ to ROACO
ROACO periodically brings together in Rome Agencies and Organizations active in various countries and engaged in financial support for Eastern rite Catholic communities (building places of worship, granting scholarships, funding educational and healthcare institutions). Pope Leo described those involved in ROACO as sowers of hope “in the lands of the Christian East, which today, as never before, are devastated by wars,” and provide “a breath of oxygen to the Eastern Churches, so worn down by the conflicts in course.” He asked them, “with all my heart, to continue to do everything possible to help these Churches, so precious and so greatly afflicted.”
‘Fake news’ and the extermination of peoples
These tribulations, the Bishop of Rome recalled, are not limited to the present. The history of the Eastern Catholic Churches “has often been marked by suffering and violence.” And “unfortunately, there have also been instances of oppression and misunderstanding within the Catholic community itself, which at times failed to acknowledge and appreciate the value of traditions other than those of the West.” Today, they, together with their brothers of other Eastern Churches, find themselves at the heart of a vortex of delirium and cruelty that is raging their ancestral lands “with a diabolical intensity previously unknown.”
The Pope described with suggestive and eloquent language a historical era marked by “the principle of “might makes right” prevailing in so many situations today, all for the sake of legitimizing the pursuit of self-interest.” A time in which “the force of international law and humanitarian law seems no longer to be binding, replaced by the alleged right to coerce others.” A time in which “the desire of the world’s peoples for peace” is betrayed “with propaganda about weapons buildup, as if military supremacy will resolve problems instead of fueling even greater hatred and desire for revenge.” And all of this happens while “people are beginning to realize the amount of money that ends up in the pockets of merchants of death; money that could be used to build new hospitals and schools is instead being used to destroy those that already exist.”
The Successor of Peter called on us to “examine the causes of these conflicts, to identify those that are real and to attempt to resolve them. But also to reject those that are false, the result of emotional manipulation and rhetoric, and to make every effort to bring them to light. People must not die because of fake news.”
Imitating Jesus amid today’s Herods and Pilates
In the face of such scenarios, the Pope continued, Christians are not only called to express indignation and raise their voices. They can act as “peacemakers and promoters of dialogue,” and above all, they are called to ‘pray’, to “make every tragic news story, every newsreel that we see, a cry of intercession before God.” They are also called to bear witness by following Jesus, to “imitate Christ, who conquered evil by the love he showed on the cross, and to show a way of reigning quite different from that of Herod and Pilate.”
“One, for fear of being deposed,” the Pope noted recalled, his words subtly alluding to present-day events—“murdered children, who even today continue to be torn apart by bombs; the other washed his hands, as we risk doing every day until we arrive at the point of no return.”
Ex Oriente Lux
Pope Leo took the opportunity to once again express gratitude to the Eastern Churches, “especially when you remain in your lands as disciples and witnesses of Christ.” He embraced them as guardians “of liturgies that allow God to dwell in time and space, of centuries-old chants imbued with praise, glory, and mystery, which raise an incessant plea for forgiveness for humanity.” He recalled how many of them, “often nameless, join the great ranks of martyrs and saints of the Christian East. In the dark night of conflict, you are witnesses to the light of the East.”
The Pope then expressed a wish full of practical developments: “I would like this light of wisdom and salvation,” he said in the concluding part of his address, “to be better known in the Catholic Church, where it is still largely unknown and where, in some places, the faith is in danger of becoming lifeless, also because the hope expressed repeatedly by Saint John Paul II has not yet been realized: ‘The Church must learn once again to breathe with both lungs, the Eastern and the Western’.”
Now is the time, the Pope added, to “implement the clear bidding of the Magisterium” to become familiar with the treasures of Eastern Christianity, for example by “organizing basic courses on the Eastern Churches in Seminaries, Theological Faculties, and Catholic Universities .”After all, “Eastern Catholics today are no longer our distant cousins who celebrate unfamiliar rites, but our brothers and sisters who, due to forced migration, are our next-door neighbors.” And “their sense of the sacred, their deep faith, confirmed by suffering, and their spirituality, redolent of the divine mysteries, can benefit the thirst for God, latent yet at the same present, in the West.” (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 26/6/2025)
