Christian church in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, photo by Antonio Graceffo Pope Leo XIV arrived in Lebanon on his first international trip, visiting what was once one of the strongest Christian centers in the Middle East. His visit comes as Christians across the region continue to flee war, persecution, and economic collapse. Once-major Christian communities in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Gaza, and Bethlehem have sharply declined. In Lebanon, Christians were more than half the population before the civil war but have fallen to about 32 percent. Syria’s Christian population has dropped from 1.5 million in 2011 to roughly 400,000 today. And in Iraq, the Christian population has fallen from more than a million to roughly 120,000. Violence, instability, and demographic change have driven many out across the…
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