Patriarch of Jordan Emphasizes Nation's Importance for Christian Community

(October 20, 2010) When Pope Benedict XVI made his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in May 2009, Jordan was his first stop. But many pilgrims overlook Jordan, excluding it from official Holy Land tours. Still, it is one of the nations that falls under the jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and according to the patriarch, the importance of Jordan needs to be recognized. Archbishop Fouad Twal, himself of Jordanian birth, spoke of his homeland at the exhibit "A Look at Christians of the Middle East,” is being sponsored by the Custody of the Holy Land during the synod on the Middle East, which is under way through Sunday. The archbishop said that in Jordan "is the most consistent portion of our local Christian community, grown numerically with the addition in 1948 and in 1967 of so many Palestinian refugees." The result is that today the country has 65 parishes and 77,000 faithful. In fact, Archbishop Twal noted, "80% of our seminarians are of Jordanian origin." The patriarch asserted that Christians of the Holy Land must be at the centre of the Church's attention: They are "descendants of the first community formed by Jesus Christ himself," he reminded, and never before has it been so much the "Church of Calvary" such that the presence of Christians in the Holy Land can be read as "a mission, a vocation," called by God to "bear this cross." Emphasising the fact that Jordan is an example of dialogue and religious coexistence, Archbishop Twal pointed to the charitable work done by the Christian community there assisting more than 500,000 refugees, especially Iraqis.