Please pray for guidance of the Holy Spirit on the Middle East Synod of Catholic Bishops which is now in session. Chaldean Bishop Jammo of El Cajon (San Diego), whose presentation on the Chaldean Church blessed a SSJC-WR program two years ago, is an ex officio attendee. Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles and Archbishop Levada of Detroit will be the representatives of the US Bishops’ conference because many Middle Eastern immigrants reside in each of those Archdioceses, and will be allowed an “intervention ” (formal public statement). One of the two crafters of Cardinal Mahoney’s intervention is SSJC-WR member Fr. Alexei Smith, director of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Details on the Synod, which ends Oct. 24, are in the links below.
Mideast Synod: Novelties and Numbers
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 11, 2010 (Zenit.org). The Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops will see for the first time almost all the ordinaries of the region gathered around the Bishop of Rome….
Another novelty is that this will be the briefest synod, lasting only 14 days…. Read the complete article.
Short article on background and issues of the Synod:
“….Two of the issues under consideration by the synod will be immigration and emigration. Immigration is a relatively recent but massive reality. The Latin Catholic population in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states is now almost as large as the combined population of the six other churches. It is made up largely of guest workers from the Philippines and South Asia. But most of the Latin Catholics, nearly two million, reside in Saudi Arabia where public observance of Christianity is prohibited….” Read the complete article.