This was posted today
by ANS.
(ANS – Aleppo) – Fr. Munir El Rai, the
Salesian provincial of the Middle East
Province, has visited the SDB communities
in Syria.
He sent a note to ANS about his journey among people who are intimidated by war,
young people thirsting for hope, and SDBs who are staying to help the
population; in all of them he heard the same cry: “Haaj” (Enough)!
Fr. El Rai first
passed thru Beirut, Lebanon, to meet the Salesians of
that country. Among the issues addressed were the procedures whereby displaced
Syrians have come to Lebanon
to find peace and work. “Many Syrian Christian families find refuge from the
war by emigrating into Lebanon,”
writes Fr. El Rai. “This is desirable because of the strong Christian presence,
and the possibility of finding work and of emigrating to other countries. I
then asked the Salesians of Lebanon to prepare an emergency plan for the
reception of Syrian refugees, as was done with the Lebanese during the Lebanese
war.”
On Wednesday, September
26, by public transportation he began an overland trip to Damascus. During the journey, Fr. El Rai had
a discussion with the people about the condition of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, the
suffering in which the people are now living. His arrival in Damascus coincided with the final phase of
the attack on the Ministry of Defense: the whole city was on alert and full of
army roadblocks. The climate of fear, sadness, and insecurity was very strong.
As a result of the attack, the provincial reached the Salesian Center
with difficulty.
The community of four
Salesians is situated in an area which is safe enough. They are trying to give
signs of hope to young people and families, organizing meetings and spiritual
and recreational training. The Center is becoming an oasis of peace, sharing,
and hospitality, increasingly valuable to young people in the area. “All the
confreres have confirmed their determination to remain in Syria to serve
young people,” says Fr. El Rai. “On the occasion of my visit we relaunched
visits to families with very young children who now avoid the Center for fear
of the dangers they might encounter along the way, trying to support them on
the spiritual, moral, and material levels.”
“This vision of many
young people who have lost all their hopes for the future and for their country
saddened me a lot, insofar as it is the collapse of a lifetime of teachings
based on having confidence in the future, and I was taken back to the image of
a Syria without Christians and without a future, as is happening in other areas
of the Middle East,” noted Fr. El Rai.
On Saturday, September
29, at Tartous Fr. El Rai met the bishop of the Maronites, who thanked the
Salesians in Kafroun for the activities they have carried out. Focused on that
work, Fr. El Rai went through several villages, coming across countless images
of those who had died in the clashes. He reports: “At Kafroun I met the
Salesian who had been in this house for the summer along with two younger
brothers, and has remained with a new confrere who joined him for this new
mission. Then we decided to leave the house open all year to continue to host
the displaced people of Aleppo:
about 40 people, including the families of Salesian brothers and of Salesian Cooperators,
and our young people. Currently the number of these displaced people is
increasing rapidly due to the escalation of the clashes. The house is also
carrying out educational and recreational activities with young people from the
city of Homs,
the hardest hit by the clashes. The Center is also running an oratory with the
youths of the area.”
The internally displaced
persons and the Salesian Family at Kafroun share a common life in a family
style. They coordinate activities and moments of common life. Guests are
engaged in housework, such as maintenance, care of the garden, the kitchen, and
laundry; and in pastoral work with the other evacuees and with the children of
the area. With the Salesians, the families feel safe, but they remain anxious
for loved ones who are still in Aleppo.
They are thinking about the future, torn between fear, the desire to flee
abroad, and the hope to be able to return to their homes.
“I left for Aleppo on the afternoon of October 2, traveling on a 25-seat
bus along with a Salesian Cooperator from Aleppo.
The bus, already loaded with the luggage of the refugees it was carrying, was
also charged with tension and fears for the trip, which led us through the
areas hardest hit by clashes, and the expectations of people who hoped to
return to their places of origin to try to reach their loved ones.” The
gasoline to start the journey was obtained from a seller who had hidden his supply
– because fuel distributors are no longer operating.
“Along the deserted
highway you notice the signs of war: armored cars and tanks, damaged and
abandoned houses, various Syrian Army checkpoints, where we were stopped for inspection
of our documents. After a stretch of road outside the control of the Syrian Army,
just an hour from Aleppo,
we ran into a rebel roadblock to check the documents, and they let us go. After
another rebel checkpoint we reached Aleppo,
aware of how fortunate we had been not to be attacked.”
Having arrived at the
Salesian house in the evening, the provincial received a surprise greeting and
the thanks of two Syrian SDBs, a Syrian prenovice, and some youths who were
playing in the small courtyard. A decade of the Rosary made it possible to
close the day with relative equanimity.
But the next morning
the awakening was abrupt: “The Salesian house shook due to a huge attack on the
main square of Aleppo, which is eight minutes away on
foot. At 9:00 a.m. along with another Salesian, I wanted to visit the site of
the attack, which resulted in about 50 deaths and more than 100 wounded in the
center of Aleppo;
but this was impossible because they feared new attacks.”
As recently as last April, the youth center at Aleppo was able to hold a soccer tournament. |
Another young Syrian
confided to Fr. El Rai that the first help people need on the part of the
Church “is a strong sign of spiritual and moral support, and later the support
of solidarity.” War is not made only by acts of violence; it is also a moral
and psychological matter. The streets are full of roadblocks and of armed people
and cars; one sees weapons everywhere. All now speak the language of war,
children know the names of weapons, and when there is an explosion they recognize
the weapon used. In the evening the hits intensify, and the kids fall asleep
and dream of finding everything resolved upon awakening.
At Aleppo Fr. El Rai
had various meetings with the SDB community to think about how to continue to
help young people and their families, on spiritual and material levels. The house
of Aleppo is
another oasis of peace. The few that attend start coming at 4:30 p.m. and
remain until the evening, when the day ends with a prayer to the Virgin Mary.
The SDBs with the help
of the Salesians Cooperators and other laity started initiatives with
internally displaced people at state schools, but then they stopped because of threats.
Now this activity is bouncing back, thanks to the young priests of different rites
and various lay groups. “The value of giving oneself to others and the fact of still
believing in coexistence, once Syria’s
pride, is one of the signs of hope that I found during my trip.”
The provincial
departed by plane from Aleppo for Damascus on October 7. “The
taxi cost more than the flight, because of the risks which the driver took to
accompany me.”
“This trip,” continues
Fr. El Rai, “has touched my life from the human, Christian, and Salesian points
of view. It took me to see the horrors of war that so quickly have brought
destruction, insecurity, sadness, hate, and division to our country. I was also
shown the minds of men who strongly want only peace and security, and have
realized that the solution can only come about thru dialog. I also witnessed a
strong return to faith and to prayer, and the will to live, to the point that,
paradoxically, the number of marriages has increased.”
“To me it seems that
there are now two major challenges: (1) supporting the population in this
emergency phase, facing the current lack of humanitarian aid, dictated by the
fact that the situation in Syria is treated only as one of politics and media,
while the humanitarian level is being neglected; (2) succeeding in erasing
hatred after so much violence, is how peace will finally be restored.”
“On behalf of many
Syrians that I met during this trip,” Fr. El Rai concludes, “I ask you to pray
for us.”
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