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On Middle East Visit, Pope Will Find a Diminished Christian Population
(Wall Street Journal) Nicholas Casey - Pope Francis arrives in the region on Saturday for a three-day tour. The pope arrives on Saturday in Jordan, visits Bethlehem in the West Bank on Sunday, and goes on Monday to Jerusalem. Pope Francis will find a Middle East where "moderation and stability that existed for Christians for centuries is now gone," said Justus Weiner, a human-rights lawyer and scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. "People now look over their shoulder and see if their relatives have decamped, and that creates a panic," he said. Pope Francis has spoken out a number of times in defense of Christians in the region, calling for the right of Christians to "live peacefully in the places where they were born."