By Tovima News –
Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem needed little introduction when he arrived in the Oval Office. President Trump remembered him from a visit nearly a decade earlier, when the patriarch received him at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of Christianity’s holiest sites. The recollection gave their roughly 40-minute meeting a personal opening.
But the patriarch had come to Washington with a more urgent message. Christian communities and holy sites across the Middle East, he argued, need greater attention from the United States.
The meeting marked the second time in recent months that Mr. Trump had received a senior Greek Orthodox patriarch in the Oval Office.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, had visited the same office months earlier. Together, the meetings placed two of the most prominent Orthodox leaders before the president at a moment when conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria have sharpened concerns about the future of Christians in the region.
Patriarch Theophilos raised the need to protect access to pilgrimage sites, preserve freedom of worship and support communities affected by war, political instability and economic pressure.
Mr. Trump appeared relaxed and willing to joke before the conversation turned to more difficult issues. At one point, he asked Patriarch Theophilos whether he knew Patriarch Bartholomew, referring warmly to their earlier meeting in the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump did not limit himself to ceremonial remarks. He asked specific questions about conditions on the ground and wanted to know whether American initiatives were producing practical results for Christians in the region.
Massad Boulos, a presidential adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, was also present. Mr. Boulos, an Orthodox Christian of Lebanese origin, was a relevant participant in a discussion that touched on U.S. policy from Gaza to Lebanon and Syria.
During the meeting, Patriarch Theophilos awarded Mr. Trump the title of “Great Bearer of the Cross” of the Order of the Cross Bearers of the Holy Sepulchre, which is one of the highest distinctions of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The award gave the meeting a ceremonial dimension, but the discussion also turned to property issues and pilgrimage sites. The patriarch did not focus on a single dispute, but described what he sees as a broader set of challenges facing the Patriarchate in places where it has a historic presence and responsibility.
One of those concerns is St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, one of the world’s oldest continuously operating Christian monasteries.
An Egyptian court ruling last year raised alarm in Greece and among Orthodox church authorities after it said that disputed lands around the monastery belonged to the Egyptian state while affirming the monks’ right to use religious sites.
Sources in Washington told To Vima that Michael Rigas, the U.S. deputy secretary of state for management and resources, has been actively following the monastery issue and has been involved in related discussions.
The Jerusalem Patriarchate oversees some of Christianity’s most significant sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Its leaders have long had to navigate religious, political and property disputes in a region where small Christian communities often find themselves exposed to wider conflict.
For the Patriarchate, those questions are not abstract. They reach from Jerusalem and Bethlehem to Sinai, and to the daily pressures facing Christian communities across a region shaped by conflict, fragile politics and competing claims over sacred space.
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