Syria: the Apostolic Nuncio visits the Christian villages of Idlib, "I place my heart near yours"

Three historic villages in northwestern Syria, scarred by war, exile, and the earthquake. Apostolic Nuncio Luigi Roberto Cona carries the presence of the Holy See in a region where Christians are now only a remnant.

The fact

We had opened (fil accord-usa-iran-2026) the fate of the Christians of the East in the regional recomposition post-agreement. Archbishop Luigi Roberto Cona, apostolic nuncio in Syria, visited three historic Christian villages in the Idlib governorate (northwestern Syria), reported Vatican News on July 15, 2026. The communities there are tested "by years of war, forced displacements, and the damage from the earthquake" of February 2023. The Vatican News communiqué in Arabic language repeats the nuncio's words to these faithful: "I place my heart near yours."

Our reading

The Roman gesture, quantitatively modest, is qualitatively essential. Pope Francis had recalled, in Fratelli tutti, the vocation of the Church to remain present among those who suffer, without tying its mission to the logic of numbers. The nuncio's visit extends the action of the Catholic patriarchates of Antioch and the assistance of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). According to the data published by ACN since 2016, Syria had approximately 1.5 million Christians before 2011; they are now only a few hundred thousand. The Idlib governorate, long under jihadist control (Hayat Tahrir al-Cham), is among the most severe cases. Each pastoral visit, each mass, each encouragement weaves back what geopolitics tears apart.

To ponder

Christ never tied the truth of his mission to the number of his disciples. "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Mt 18, 20). The Western faithful supports ACN, the Œuvre d'Orient, and the Custody of the Holy Land; they pray, this Thursday of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the historical heart of Eastern monasticism, for those who remain when everything invites them to leave.