VATICAN CITY – On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV pledged to make concerted efforts to foster peace in the Middle East and Ukraine. He also committed to actively supporting the spiritual practices and traditions of the eastern rite churches, which are Catholic communities with roots in the Middle East and Eastern Europe impacted by ongoing conflict and persecution.

“The church needs you!” Leo told a Holy Year audience of eastern rite pilgrims.

Eastern-rite Catholics are loyal to the pope’s authority but maintain distinct rituals and liturgical practices. These communities include the Coptic, Chaldean, Maronite, and Eritrean Catholic churches, the Syro-Malabar church in India, and numerous Greek Catholic communities throughout Eastern Europe and the Americas. They differ from Orthodox Christians as they fully recognize the authority of the pope.

Pope Leo highlighted that many eastern rite Catholics have been compelled to leave their countries due to “war and persecution, instability and poverty.” This remark pointed to the mass departure of Christians from areas like the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Syria, where long-standing communities have been uprooted by Islamic extremist violence. Notably, many of these communities in northern Iraq are among the oldest in Christianity, where Aramaic dialects, the language spoken by Jesus, are still used.

Leo vowed “every effort” to work for peace in those regions, citing in particular the Middle East and Ukraine, and said the Holy See was ready to “help bring enemies together, face to face.”

“Who better than you can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence?” he said. “From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see!”

He praised those Christians who are working at reconciliation even in regions where they are persecuted minorities, and urged them to continue.

“I thank God for those Christians — Eastern and Latin alike — who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them,” Leo said. “Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence.”

The audience featured a mix of faithful from around the world, with Lebanese and Ukrainian flags and ululating pilgrims.

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