SW News: As the Catholic prelates of the Middle East consecrated the region to the Holy Family on Sunday, June 27, Pope Francis exhorted believers there to the salt of their land. The pontiff made this appeal during an appeal to Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East as the prelates assembled at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth for the consecration.

The Holy Father expressed happiness at the initiative of the patriarchs to consecrate the region to the Holy Family and pray for peace. His Holiness also recollected his visits to the Holy Land, the UAE and Iraq as well as his appeals for help for crisis-hit Lebanon and Syria.

Pope Francis also said he looked forward to his meeting with the leaders of the Christian communities of Lebanon. He told the patriarchs that the Holy Family comprising Jesus, Mary and Joseph represents their identity and mission.

“Consecration to the Holy Family also summons each one of you to rediscover, as individuals and as a community, your vocation as Christians in the Middle East, not only by demanding due recognition of your rights as native citizens of those beloved lands, but also by living your mission as custodians and witnesses of the first apostolic origins,” the pontiff said.

The pope also thanked believers in the Middle East for their witness and perseverance in faith and urged them to live the prophecy of human fraternity expressed in the encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’.

Various Catholic patriarchs made the consecration during Holy Mass celebrated at the Basilica of the Annunciation. The day will also be observed as Peace Day for the East in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Syria.