“The seizure of the Little Petra Hotel by the radical extremist group Ateret Cohanim is a threat to the continued existence of a Christian Quarter in Jerusalem,” says Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III.

Patriarch Theophilos III charges that a rising number of assaults against Christians and church buildings are an attempt to drive the Christian community out of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Palestinian Christians and their supporters are urging Pope Francis and the World Council of Churches to intervene in more than a dozen evictions in Jerusalem “scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 2, which happens to coincide with the Greek Orthodox celebration of Easter.”

Archbishop Atallah Hanna’s Easter Sunday sermon: “We pray to God that the whole world will come together to fight the pandemic and then continue to be united in facing all the other pandemics in our universe—especially racism, hatred, injustice, occupation, oppression, and degradation of human dignity.”