Pope Francis denounced the “complicit silence” that has allowed violence to consume the Middle East and drive tens of thousands of Christians from their homes, during a remarkable gathering Saturday of Orthodox patriarchs and Catholic leaders united in praying for peace in the region. Francis hosted the daylong ecumenical service in the symbolically rich Adriatic port city of Bari, considered a bridge between east and west and home to the relics of St. Nicholas, an important saint in the Orthodox world.

“Truces maintained by walls and displays of power will not lead to peace, but only the concrete desire to listen and to engage in dialogue will,” he said.

Pope Francis on Saturday voiced concern that Christians will disappear from the Middle East amid “murderous indifference,” as church leaders from Syria and Lebanon called on Western states to help return Syrian refugees.

Pope Francis and Orthodox patriarchs pray for Mideast Christians

The Argentine Pope was addressing the leaders of almost all the Middle Eastern churches gathered in the port city of Bari to pray for peace in the region.

&&”The Middle East has become a land of people who leave their own lands behind,” Francis said.  “There is also the danger that the presence of our brothers and sisters in the faith will disappear, disfiguring the very face of the region.  Indifference kills, and we desire to lift up our voices in opposition to this murderous indifference.”

Lebanese cardinal Bechara Rai, the patriarch of the Maronite Church, said governments should from now on encourage Syrian refugees to return to their country, because “bombings are extremely localized”.  States must “financially help people driven from their lands to repair their homes,” he said, instead of “repeatedly saying that there is no peace”.

More than 350,000 people have been killed since Syria’s brutal civil war began in 2011, with millions more displaced.  Lebanon, a country of cultural and religious diversity, has taken in some 1.75 million refugees.  On Saturday, a ceasefire deal in the south between the government and rebels allowed thousands of displaced Syrians to return home. The accord follows a string of similar deals with rebels for other areas of Syria, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Pope Francis, center, flanked by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, left, and Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, reads his message outside the St. Nicholas Basilica on the occasion of a daylong prayer for peace in the Middle East in Bari, southern Italy, Saturday, July 7, 2018. Pope Francis denounced the “complicit silence” that has allowed violence to consume the Middle East and drive tens of thousands of Christians from their homes, during a remarkable gathering Saturday of Orthodox patriarchs and Catholic leaders united in praying for peace in the region.

The Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop of Aleppo Jean-Clement Jeanbart said he has launched a campaign to return Syrians, called “Aleppo is waiting for you” funded by Swiss benefactors. Of the 170,000 Christians in the city before the war, around 60,000 remain, he said. Those who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries are expected to return, unlike those who have fled to the West.  “Now that security has returned, help us at home,” he said, adding that the Syrian regime is “credited with emphasizing secularism, diversity and equality for all citizens”.

Speaking at the end of a summit of Christian religious leaders, Francis also repeated his view that the “status quo” of the contested city of Jerusalem should be respected, and backed a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Truces maintained by walls and displays of power will not lead to peace, but only the concrete desire to listen and to engage in dialogue will,” he said. “Let there be an end to the few profiting from the sufferings of many. No more occupying territories and thus tearing people apart,” he said.

Pope says walls, occupation, fundamentalism block Mideast peace

Francis said many conflicts had been stoked by “forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism that, under the guise of religion, have profaned God’s name – which is peace – and persecuted age-old neighbours”.

He said every community in the Middle East should be protected, “not simply the majority,” and took a swipe at weapons procurement, saying “You cannot speak of peace while you are secretly racing to stockpile new arms”.

The only alternative is a fundamentalist Islamic regime, he warned.

The Syrian-Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II, who lives in Damascus, echoed that “our greatest fear is to replace a secular regime with probably an Islamic one”.

According to the Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, half of Syria’s 1.5 million Christians have fled the country since the unrest broke out.

Churches have been damaged or destroyed, and large numbers of Christians have been murdered or abducted.

Also attending the ecumenical meeting in southern Italy are the patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the eastern orthodox church, and metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian orthodox church which is powerful in Syria.

Patriarch Tawadros II is representing Egypt’s orthodox Copts alongside six patriarch of eastern Catholic churches.

Francis described the Middle East region as “the crossroads of civilisations and the cradle of the great monotheistic religions”.

“Yet this region … has been covered by dark clouds of war, violence and destruction, instances of occupation and varieties of fundamentalism, forced migration and neglect.

“All this has taken place amid the complicit silence of many.”