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http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303749904579577892072979908
In preparation for the pope’s visit this weekend, a man cleans a church courtyard in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Thursday. Zuma Press.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank-At the Church of the Nativity, triumphal banners with biblical stories hang in Manger Square, where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass this weekend.
But the festive mood belies an uncomfortable reality for Christians: Their numbers are dwindling here, as they are across the Middle East.
The vast majority in Bethlehem 50 years ago, Christians now make up 15% of the town, about enough to fill Manger Square.
The pope arrives in the region on Saturday for a three-day tour, meant to commemorate a visit 50 years ago with the Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of many of the region’s Orthodox Christians.
This will be the second tour for the Argentine pontiff.
He has traveled only to Brazil, where he was greeted in 2013 as a kind of native son by the world’s largest Catholic country.
The Middle East, where his flock has been devastated, presents a stark contrast.
When the pope arrives on Saturday in Jordan, he will say Mass in a stadium among Christians who fled from war and sectarian strife in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
On Sunday, he visits Bethlehem in the West Bank. Tensions between the Palestinian territory and Israel and a stagnant economy have caused a slow bleed of Palestinian Christians, who have emigrated to other countries over decades.
The pope goes Monday to Jerusalem, where Christian sites were hit by anti-Arab vandalism ahead of his arrival.
A century ago, Christians accounted for 10% of the Middle East population, according to the Pew Research Center. Today they are 5%.
Syria has seen an exodus of nearly half a million Christians, and in Jerusalem, a population of 27,000 Christians in 1948 has dwindled to 5,000
This will be the second tour for the Argentine pontiff.
He has traveled only to Brazil, where he was greeted in 2013 as a kind of native son by the world’s largest Catholic country.
The Middle East, where his flock has been devastated, presents a stark contrast.
When the pope arrives on Saturday in Jordan, he will say Mass in a stadium among Christians who fled from war and sectarian strife in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
On Sunday, he visits Bethlehem in the West Bank. Tensions between the Palestinian territory and Israel and a stagnant economy have caused a slow bleed of Palestinian Christians, who have emigrated to other countries over decades.
The pope goes Monday to Jerusalem, where Christian sites were hit by anti-Arab vandalism ahead of his arrival.
A century ago, Christians accounted for 10% of the Middle East population, according to the Pew Research Center. Today they are 5%.
Syria has seen an exodus of nearly half a million Christians, and in Jerusalem, a population of 27,000 Christians in 1948 has dwindled to 5,000
