The option foreshadowed by US President Donald Trump to maintain a "fast
track" open for Christian refugees to enter the US, while the doors are
closed to citizens of seven countries with a Muslim majority, is "a
trap for Christians in the Middle East".
This was underlined by Chaldean
Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, Primate of the Eastern Catholic Church.
"Every reception policy that discriminates the persecuted and suffering
on religious grounds", explains Patriarch Louis Raphael "ultimately
harms the Christians of the East, because among other things provides
arguments to all propaganda and prejudice that attack native Christian
communities of the Middle East as 'foreign bodies', groups supported and
defended by Western powers. These discriminating choices", adds the
Primate of the Chaldean Church "create and feed tensions with our Muslim
fellow citizens. Those who seek help do not need to be divided
according to religious labels. And we do not want privileges. This is
what the Gospel teaches, and what Pope Francis pointed out, who welcomed
refugees in Rome who fled from the Middle East, both Christians and
Muslims without distinction".