FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN THE HOLY LAND

During Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cyprus, on 6 June 2010, the preparatory document (“Instrumentum Laboris”) of the upcoming Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Middle East, to be held in the Vatican from 10 to 24 October 2010, was officially presented to all the heads of the Catholic Churches present in the region of the Middle East.

The document is entitled: “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: communion and witness.” It is the result of a wide consultation among Catholic bishops in different countries of the region, where Christian presence has been constant during two millennia. These countries include Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Autonomous Territories, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, among others.

The Christian presence in this region is nowadays at a bare minimum. Indeed, these countries are overwhelmingly Muslim, with the exception of Cyprus, which is overwhelmingly Christian, but which is a European country and not part of the Middle East, Lebanon, where Christians make up circa 35 per cent of the population, and Israel, where the majority are Jews, but with a significant Muslim presence as well.

Yet few people realise that Christianity was born in the Middle East, and spread to Europe from the Middle East. Few know that the first heroic witnesses of martyrdom and monastic life began in the Middle East. And still less people realise that, between the years 313 and 638 of the Christian era, the whole region was part of the Byzantine Empire, and Christians were practically the only inhabitants of the region until the Muslim invasions. Times have changed radically ever since, and nowadays Christians in general, and Catholics in particular, are seemingly an insignificant, if not unwanted, minority, in the region.

Indeed, it is also true to say that Christian presence in the Middle East has suffered a lot through internal strife and divisions. Christians realise that these divisions have been a counter-witness to the Gospel, but they are now part and parcel of the make-up of Christian presence in the region.

Indeed, in many cases, different Christian Churches live side by side without any problems, except maybe in the case of the Holy Land, where cases of denominational tensions still exist. Even here, few are aware, however, that divisions are not only present among Christians, but also, and in a very violent way, among Muslims in countries like Iraq, and within the religious versus the secular framework of the Jewish communities in Israel.

The Middle East is a hotbed of wars, violence and injustice. It has been so for over a century. These conflicts include the long-standing problem of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, that exploded especially after 1947 and is now practically at a stalemate, with no end in sight, in spite of all the nice words of the politicians on all sides.

The Lebanon war still lingers in the memories of many, and its effects are clearly visible in the tiny country that used to be known as “the Switzerland of the Middle East”, ravaged nowadays by deep divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Christians and Druse. Egypt and Syria are fairly stable, but the fear of Islamic fundamentalism is evident, particularly in Egypt.

Iraq is an example of the ignorance of the Western world regarding the Middle East. It is an example of a country that was brought to its knees in order to create a democracy out of a brutal dictatorship, but which ended in creating chaos and anarchy, to the detriment of ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Christians, who have fled by the thousands from places where they had lived in peace for hundreds of years.

Turkey is a secular state, but even there Islamic fundamentalism is gaining ground, and violence against Christians is increasing, with the last example in the brutal murder of the Franciscan bishop Luigi Padovese last May.

The aim of the Synod is to instil hope and courage in the frail Christian communities of the region, and to continue to spread the message of peace and solidarity even in a hostile region. Indeed, the voice of Christians will remain feeble and unheard by many, and sadly to say, especially by those same countries which have created all the conflicts in the Middle East during the last half century.

These are the countries that used to cherish Christian values, particularly in the USA and Europe, but which are now ashamed to even use the term “Christian” for fear of offending the other religious minorities in their midst. Maybe they would think differently if they were to know the truth about the Christians living as religious minorities in the Middle East.

Indeed, the media propaganda nowadays can use a new kind of violence that is not culpable of killing people, but of making others forget them completely. That’s what the media is successfully doing in the Middle East regarding Christians, helped by a political agenda that has the sinister aim of erasing the name of Christ and his followers in favour of a so-called democratic, free and secular society.

This same society in the West will now face the consequence of knowing what fundamentalism is all about, when other powers will enter to fill the Christian void that it has purposely created. But that future story will be told maybe by future generations. Alas, it will be too late to turn around.