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Pope Francis on Saturday will meet with Syrian refugees in Jordan and will first-hand hear horrific accounts from the Syrian civilian war. The Pope is set to make a stop at Jordan before his trip of the Holy Land. Jordan, which has a population of 7 million, has only 250,000 people who identify themselves as Christian.
Pope Francis will meet with Muslims and Christians forced to abandon their homes and seek refuge in neighboring countries. Jordan now hosts over 600,000 Syrian refugees. The Pope will pray with refugees, disabled youths, orphans and cancer patients at Wadi al-Kharrar, which lies on the eastern bank of the Jordan river, and where some Christians believe John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ. Many people will flock to see the Pope there and at the open-air mass he is set to hold in the capital city Amman. Pilgrims want Pope Francis to call for peace in Syria.
According to Gregory Laham, the Syrian Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, about 450,000 Syrian Christians have so far been displaced by the Syrian civil war.Father Rifat Bader, spokesman for the Pope’s visit to Jordan, said that the trip would be a strong show of support for the Christians in the region. “Christian brothers from Syria and Iraq have fled violence and religious persecution. Christians in the region have become under threat since the war on Iraq in 2003”, he said. He added that over the past decade, “two million Christians have left the Middle East”.
Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur said that the visit will demonstrate how Jordan is a peaceful oasis in the middle of a turbulent region of “blood, wars and repression”.
The Pope will first make a courtesy call to King Abdullah II and Queen Rania and celebrate mass at the International Stadium in Amman. On Saturday, he will travel to the Baptism site in Jordan Valley, 30 miles west from Amman. He will leave for Bethlehem in West Bank on Sunday.