Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako--who was President delegate during the recent Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church entitled “Youth, faith and vocational discernment”--will host the 26th meeting of the Eastern Catholic Patriarchs, scheduled from November 26-30, at the patriarchal seat of Baghdad, and dedicated to young people as “a sign of hope in the Middle East”.

The important summit--refer sources of the Chaldean Patriarchate, consulted by Fides News Agency--will begin with a Eucharistic concelebration presided over by the Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Youssef III Younan at the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, theater of a massacre committed by Al Qaeda terrorists on October 31, 2010 in which about 50 faithful and two priests died.

The program of the meeting also includes, on November 27, a meeting of the patriarchs with a large group of young Iraqi Christians, to be held in the Chaldean cathedral dedicated to Saint Joseph. The meeting, which will end with the publication of a final statement on the condition of Christian communities in the Middle East, will be attended by Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai, Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak, Melkite Patriarch Youssef Absi, Armenian Catholic Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Ghabroyan, Bishop William Shomali (representing the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem) and Professor Souraya Bechealany, Secretary General of the Council of the Churches of the Middle East.