Catholic bishops on a solidarity visit to the “forgotten” Christians of the Middle East have called for new peace efforts to resolve conflicts tearing apart the troubled region. They also highlighted the ongoing plight of Iraqi Christian refugees who face another winter of displacement, 18 months after fleeing persecution by ISIS militants. “They want a future which is full of peace,” Bishop Declan Lang of Bristol said of the Iraqi Christians who attended a packed Mass at the Our Lady of Peace Centre on the hilly, tree-lined outskirts of the Jordanian capital Amman. “These people are of tremendous faith, and that’s where they find their identity. What we are trying to say to them is that you are not forgotten,” Bishop Lang told the US Catholic News Service. Bishop Lang led 12 bishops from Europe, South Africa and North America on the third and final leg of a pilgrimage to encourage Christians in the Holy Land. Known as the Holy Land Coordination, the annual event was set up at the invitation of the Holy See at the end of the last century to offer support to local Christian communities of the Holy Land. The bishops earlier travelled to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to encourage a Palestinian Christian population increasingly dwindling in the land of Jesus’s birth. But the bishops said it was also vital to hear from Iraqi Christians and other refugees, so the wider Christian community could effectively help them. “It’s important that we remind our governments and the general population of the situation of Iraqi Christians,” Bishop Lang said of the estimated 8,000 Iraqi Christians currently sheltering in neighbouring Jordan. They fled their ancient homeland of more than 14 centuries after ISIS militants told them to convert to Islam, be leave or be killed. Tens of thousands are internally displaced in northern Iraq. “So one of the responsibilities and obligations that we have is to keep reminding people of the stress and distress of the Iraqi refugees,” Bishop Lang said. One Iraqi Christian, identified only as Bashar, said after the Mass: “My family and I sadly feel that we can never go back to our home in Mosul.” A mechanical engineer, he had once owned his own telecom company in Iraq’s second-biggest city, which is currently in the hands of ISIS. “The military didn’t protect us, and our Muslim neighbours betrayed us, even robbing us of our personal possessions. So we believe that the only future for us is somewhere in the West,” said the man, who now shelters with his family of four at the centre’s compound because he has lost his savings. Bishop Lionel Gendron of St Jean-Longueuil, Quebec, said that one of the first things he planned to do was talk to the new Canadian government about the issue of opening more resettlement opportunities to Iraqi Christians. “I will insist on the fact. Iraqis are practically not allowed to go back to their country,” the Canadian bishop said. “Many Syrians left [their country] because of the war and the political situation, while the Iraqis left mainly because of their faith.”