Pope Francis welcomed Christians from the Middle East, particularly those from Iraq and Jordan, during the general audience of October 2, 2019, which he presided over at Saint Peter’s Square.
«Without the Lord,» he told them, «it is impossible to understand Holy Scripture in-depth, but the opposite is also true: without Scripture, the events of the mission of Jesus and his Church in the world. remain indecipherable. Saint James could write in this sense: ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ’. «
«May the Lord bless you and protect you always from the evil one,» the pope said in Italian, before being translated into Arabic by his Egyptian secretary, Mgr. Yohannis Lahzi Gaid.
In his catechesis a little earlier, the Pope assured that «any man discouraged or marginalized, in fact, can receive in Jesus the hope of his rebirth».
