Youssef Absi

“We are all the children and grandchildren of the ancient church of Antioch which spread Christianity not only in the Middle East but across all of the western world, too” – this is how Youssef Absi, the partiarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church described the community he has been leading since 2017. The Melkites of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine had to make tremendous sacrifices for the preservation of their faith. After the Turkish oppression, over the past several decades their existence has been pushed to the brink by the many wars waged in the Middle East. Despite the persecution and displacement, the community had to endure, the patriarch sent the following message to his own: “We will always persevere and survive on the land God has given us, so that we may bear witness for the entire world. No matter the cost, we will always continue in our faith.”