Embattled Syrians hope Argentine pope can broker peace

Catholics everywhere are holding their breath to see what Francis might do as pope, but arguably nowhere is the sense of expectation more intense than in Syria, where the country's small Christian minority is literally fighting for its life.

On Thursday, the Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo floated the idea that perhaps a pope from Argentina, who isn't perceived as aligned with any of the major parties to the Syrian conflict, could be the one to cajole major powers such as the United States and Russia to get serious about peace.

"What we want is for the fighting to stop and reconciliation to begin, and if he can help us, it would be a great gift," said Bishop Antoine Audo in an interview with NCR.

On Wednesday, Patriarch Gregory III Laham of Antioch announced he'd written Francis to warn him that violence across the Middle East, especially in Syria, is putting the region's Christian minority at risk.

Few Catholic leaders are better positioned to understand that threat than the 67-year-old Audo. Aleppo lies smack in the middle of the conflict zone, and its Christian community has been especially devastated by the violence. Audo estimates that to date, roughly one-quarter of his faithful have fled the country.

According to U.N. estimates, 70,000 Syrians have lost their lives since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began two years ago, which works out to 149 Syrians killed every day. On March 6, the number of Syrians who had applied for refugee status hit 1 million, while 2.5 million people are thought to be internally displaced.

Audo, who has led the church in Aleppo since 1992, is a Jesuit like Pope Francis. He's currently in Rome for meetings with Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based federation of Catholic charities, which has launched an appeal for $7.7 billion to support humanitarian programs in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

On background, Vatican sources told NCR that Pope Francis may shortly dispatch a senior cardinal as his personal envoy to Syria, in part to promote a negotiated settlement among the warring parties and in part to reassure the local Catholic community of the pope's concern.