[NYer]

George also commented on the Pope’s outreach to Eastern Churches, a trait that he said few people have noticed. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis served as Ordinary of Eastern-rite Catholics in Argentina, who lacked their own ordinary.

“Relations with those Churches, especially in the Middle East, is very important, especially in a time when Christianity is beginning to disappear from the Middle East because of political problems,” George stressed.

While many of you here in the west may not yuet recognize the timeliness of this, one need only look towards Europe to see what awaits us in another few years. There are villages in Syria where the entire christian population has now been eradicated. Ethnic cleansing. Today, Syria ... tomorrow, the US.

[trisham]

We are blessed to have this Pope at this time in history.