Bridge building bishops

In meetings today in southern Lebanon - up in Beit Eddine, Chouf & then down in Saida (Sidon) - I heard about bridge-building efforts of the bishops.

Yesterday the three Bishops of Saida - Maronite, Melkite & Orthodox - met with two Muftis. They hold monthly meetings and discuss resolving problems and community issues. They are the community leaders who try to build Civil Society.

One Shiite joined us at lunch - he cooperates with the bishop - & many Sunnis say they want more Christians to return to south Lebanon.

Such bridge-building work demands a lot of the bishops. They also stress that catechetical instruction for the Christian young & families is vital - so that they can know their faith and witness to Jesus.

As tension, fear and anxiety grow over the possiblity of further conflict & violence overflowing into Lebanon from Syria, so the Bishops reiterated the request to unite with the Christian community here in prayer & solidarity.

Standing on the hill at the Shrine of Our Lady of Maghdousheh - looking down at the vast Palestinian refugee camp - the prayer is for peace & for God to bless these bridge-builders.

Lebanese longing

Speaking to Lebanese in Beirut today, there is a sense of longing. It is a longing for peace.

Sporadic violence continues in Tripoli - with reports of sniper fire today - after three weeks in which more than 20 have died. Attacks near & across the Lebanese border with Syria have added to the fears of being dragged into a wider regional roll out of the Syrian conflict.

The blame game is rife - which political party to blame or which country is responsible. Here as ever in the Middle East theories are argued with a passion springing from decades of suffering.

However, many see the Tripoli violence as a direct reflection of the Syrian conflict between extremist Sunnis & Alawites. The government of Lebanon is containing the outbreak and there is a will amongst the vast majority to avoid any escalation.  

One young Maronite Christian told me today: "Here in Lebanon we always have had war - interspersed by outbreaks of peace. Now it is up to us to find peace - God has put us here for a reason."

A senior priest added his thanks to charities such as Aid to the Church in Need for supporting the Christian communities so that they can be builders of bridges of peace & understanding.  

The other Tripoli

Tripoli in northern Lebanon has both Alawites & Sunni extremists. When last I visited Tripoli I passed army checkpoints and arrived at an area where black Sunni flags proclaiming Allah were hung across the streets - the buildings still pock-marked & bullet riddled from the Civil War ended in 1990. And violent clashes between communities continue. Over the weekend 14 people died & more than 40 people were injured in what has been seen as a direct spill-over of violence from Syria. The Christian community remains in Tripoli - smaller than once before - but I came across a Maronite shrine to Our Lady with candles lit in hope & prayer before the Mother of God. The people of Lebanon & the Christian communities in the Middle East need our help & prayers.

Lebanon - please do not forget

Returning to Lebanon this week to meet with the friends & partners of Aid to the Church in Need. The projects ACN supports in Lebanon & the Middle East are of immense importance - psychologically, spiritually & materially.

The words of bishops in south Lebanon still haunt me - "Please remember that this too is the Holy Land - Our Lord & his Mother came here. Please do not forget us." And: "Just one shot could spark off another terrible conflict".

The Christians are seen in many parts of Lebanon as bridge-builders between factions in the political paradigm of Lebanon. The support of the benefactors of ACN is key to sustaining their presence.

EGYPT: Three places, two dioceses, one reality – fear

Marie-Claude Lalonde is the National Director of Aid to the Church in Need Canada. Here she reports back on her visit to Egypt in October to assess the situation facing Christians in the aftermath of the 25th January Revolution.

Whether in Imbaba, in Abou Qorqas or in Maspero, people here share the very same reality – one of fear. “Christians are scared, it is very dangerous,” a young man from Abou Qorqas tells us as he stands on the roof of a building adjoining the church. We cannot take pictures or film in this place – the two parish priests, fearing reprisals, refused to give us an interview in front of the camera.

We were visiting here six months after attacks that put 70 Christian families out on the streets when their homes and businesses were burned and pillaged in inter-religious violence. The knot at the centre of the conflict had less to do with religion than it did with quarrelling between two families. But no matter the cause, the consequences themselves were devastating for the Christians.

The same young man continued: “The children are in a bad mood, they have not slept in six months because their houses were set alight while they were inside.”

The villagers all wish to leave. There is no employment for them, no justice. They are arrested arbitrarily and can say nothing to denounce the situation.

The only positive note if there is one, is that the Catholic churches and the Orthodox and Protestant churches are helping one another and sharing the help they have received according to the needs of the people. About thirty Catholic families were left homeless. Half of them are housed by other families in the neighbourhood and the other half currently live in apartments the church has rented to them.

Bishop Antonio Aziz Mina of Gizeh is categorical in saying: “The source of violence is ignorance and poverty.” As we are speaking a great deal about the Christian exodus, he adds: “For every Christian who leaves, there are nine Muslims who also leave. I don’t want that. We encourage our faithful to stay… We want to participate fully and help in the prosperity of our country.”

Bishop Mina knows what he speaks of as the Imbaba neighbourhood, situated in his diocese, was rocked by violence on May 12, leaving 12 dead. The neighbourhood of Maspero (Cairo) where the assaults of October 9 left more than 25 dead and hundreds wounded is also part of his diocese.

There too, fear dominates. Proof of this: the simple act of a photographing or filming a church in Imbaba cost us 40 minutes worth of discussion with a police man. Even though everything took place calmly and politely, it is nonetheless a sign that the situation remains very tense.

Fear is an enemy that infiltrates everywhere, even in quiet and completely Christian villages. We observed this in Deir Dronka, a village of 3,500 people, all of them Christians. The inhabitants of the village are simple people making their living largely from agriculture. Not one incident was reported in this peaceful village.

And yet, they are frightened, claims their bishop, Monsignor Kyrillos William. “They want to leave the country because there are always massacres of Christians,” he tells us. What they hope is to go to Italy or America, but how many will succeed?

Some say they will go and vote [in the parliamentary elections which took place in late November], others not. People tell us: “The army is supposed to defend us, and they are killing us… so what good is there in voting?” Come what may, Church leaders are encouraging people to vote. They don’t say for whom they should vote, they are free. It is the exercise of democracy in which people are encouraged to participate.

The results of this suffering, of this fear and this uncertainty, will not be known in the near future as the electoral process will stretch over several months, or even a year. The process has only just begun and new inter-religious violence has already taken place.

What is left for Egyptians, both Christian and Muslim? Faith.

EGYPT: 'Building a future for my son and yours'

Marie-Claude Lalonde is the National Director of Aid to the Church in Need Canada. Here she reports back on her visit to Egypt in October to assess the situation facing Christians in the aftermath of the 25th January Revolution.

For the last year and a half, Egypt has made regular headlines because of clashes between Christians and Muslims. The country also hit front page during the Arab Spring early on this year. The situation of Christians – as well as of other minorities – continues to deteriorate.

Nevertheless, this cannot uniquely be seen as inter-confessional violence, as the roots of these conflicts are often found in the relationships between large families, unfounded rumours, the discriminatory rules of State, political issues, etc.

Despite these sad episodes of violence, life continues with school, work, agriculture, commerce…

In Dairut, a small village situated on the west coast of the Nile and 350 km south of Cairo, the Sisters of Saint Ann – an Italian congregation – hold a dispensary. They treat and counsel their patients without taking notice of their religion. For that matter, the majority of their patients are Muslim women with their children.

250 sick people, sometimes more, present themselves every day, preferring the Sisters’ dispensary to the public hospital. We are told that the care is better and as for the cost? One of the Sisters on site tells us, “They give what they can.”

A Sister tends to a young patient at the clinic in Dairut, Egypt

They treat just about anything, but particularly eye infections caused by dust and also many burns. There is a lack of hygiene as well that often delays the healing of wounds.

To the eyes of a stranger, burns are not habitually what come to mind on a list of treatments most frequently dispensed by a medical clinic. One Sister says: “Here, the children run everywhere. They are not careful and fall in fires… or there is boiling water for tea.”

Later on, she continues and explains that an angry man may very well throw boiling water on his spouse or his child. There is a lot of domestic violence. She concludes by saying “Men’s behaviour here is very hard with their women.” That is why, along with treating, the Sisters also educate.

In the cramped areas that serve as examination rooms, and in the hallways, they hang posters about democracy in the home. It’s a way to introduce the subject of relationships between men and women. They also distribute pens with slogans of tolerance inscribed on them: We will grow hand in hand; We are building a future for your son and for mine, etc. They hope that these ideas will do their work.

Tending to a patient at the clinic in Dairut, Egypt

As if the task was not already sufficiently large, they go into the streets to find the sick who otherwise would receive no treatment at all. They also lead a campaign against female circumcision in four villages. They tell us it is a reassuring fact to see that the mentality is changing and young couples are no longer doing it.

These three Sisters, and the nurses that help them, represent an element of change and of social stability. Through their attitude and their openness, they show that living together is possible, that democracy has its place and that, most importantly, all people have a right to dignity.

EGYPT: Changing the world, one 'tweet' at a time

Marie-Claude Lalonde is the National Director of Aid to the Church in Need Canada. Here she reports back on her visit to Egypt in October to assess the situation facing Christians in the aftermath of the 25th January Revolution.

Father Henri Boulad is an Egyptian-Lebanese Jesuit, and lives in Alexandria … that is, when he is not travelling around the world. He is now 80 years old, but rest assured, he is very much of our times. Well known for his straight-talk, it is with conviction that he speaks to us of the world, and of his vision of the world.

Interviewed in Cairo last October 21 by Aid to the Church in Need, Father Henri Boulad expressed his hopes and his fears for the future of Egypt as well as that of Christians who have been present there since the era of Saint Mark, the apostle.

At the outset, he recalls that the Coptic problem is not a new one in Egypt, and since Nasser’s rule (1952) Christians have felt increased discrimination. On the legal side of things, for example, Christians must obtain - not without difficulty - a permit to build a church; whereas Muslims can erect mosques just about anywhere without so much as a permit. There is also discrimination on a regular basis in situations involving obtaining jobs or buying property.

“What is new within these events is that not only are Christians protesting, but they are defending themselves against the violence done to them,” declares Father Boulad. He adds that since the events in Maspero (Cairo), last October 9 (leaving more than 25 dead and hundreds injured), the army lost its credibility. “We had the impression that they [the army] straight-out took position against the Christians!”

Father Henri Boulad, an Egyptian-Lebanese Jesuit living in Alexandria 

According to the priest, radical Muslims are now quite visible, which was not the case before the fall of Mubarak because he would track them. The radicals speak the language of violence, whereas the more liberal groups, who were at the source of the revolution, are “silenced through threats […] whether they are Muslims or Christians,” says Father Boulad. There are actually many who think that the revolution was hijacked along the way by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists (radicals).

“It is all for show; believing that the elections will be free,” believes Father Boulad. Egypt, he says, is not ripe for democracy. Only the liberals would be. But they are far too weak in relation to other groups for the time being.

“The passage through Islam is incontrovertible and it will last a long time. […] We must brace ourselves for a haemorrhaging,” he analyses with regard to the exodus of Christians from the Middle East. “The West does not care at all for Christians […] what interests the West, is their economical and political strategy, one concern, that’s all, period.” Later on in this interview he will add “guilt by omission; kills me.”

A burnt out car in the Maspero region of Cairo, Egypt, where 25 were killed
and hundreds injured when protesters came under attack in October 2011.

Being more philosophical, he adds, this necessary passage, as he calls it, will be resolved through cultural and educational means and it will be a matter of a long process because it supposes an evolution in mentalities.

When we ask him what we can do, he says: “You must speak, fight, struggle – what you are already doing – what they continue to do with or without Facebook, in the press. […] I believe in the Internet, in Facebook and in Twitter.

“I believe in the strength of the Holy Spirit […] I am a religious priest, a Jesuit, a believer to the bone, and I believe that the strength of the Holy Spirit will one day be stronger than all these channels, but… but…

“I believe the Gospel will have the last word, and the power of truth along with the power of charity will have the last word. But battles in the meantime, and unravelling in the meantime, disillusionment in the meantime – but I believe … I count on it ... I believe in the strength of the Holy Spirit!”

And, the energetic Jesuit added with conviction that his life-long maxim has been, “To change the world!”