ROME - The crisis of Aleppo, the persecutions and the diaspora of Christians in the Middle East, the appeal to Europe and the West for the protection of a religious and cultural minority that is a guarantee for the pluralism of the Muslim societies themselves, but risks disappearing from the world that has contributed to build historically: these will be the topics of a press conference that prof. Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, will hold at the headquarters of the Community in Piazza Sant'Egidio 3/a on Tuesday 18 November at 12.00.

Andrea Riccardi recently edited, along with other authors, the publication of the "Black book on the plight of Christians in the world", published in Italy by Mondadori.
An appeal, to save Aleppo from the siege and a massacre foretold and to make an "open city" of it, was launched by prof. Riccardi on last 22 June, and was collected and re-launched by eminent personalities of the Catholic world, by Muslim and Jewish religious leaders, by representatives of the Italian government and other governments, by Nobel laureates, intellectuals, heads of international organisations, journalists. The international mobilisation, though it has served to attract the world's attention on the situation of this cradle of Syrian Catholicism, has unfortunately failed to prevent the crisis from spreading to other regions of the Middle East under the advance of the so-called Caliphate.

In the face of the increasing danger, the press conference of Tuesday 18 November aims to highlight the risks for the delicate geopolitical balance in the Middle East and for peace inherent to a crisis in which Christians are the first victims, but that is spreading like wildfire and is likely to involve Muslim and Western societies.

Thousands of voices to save Aleppo: let us sign and spread the appeal