Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, head of the Franciscans in the Middle East who are endowed with Custody of the Holy Land, said in an interview to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), “Muslim theologians now have to ask themselves, What in our doctrine led to modern fundamentalism? After all, you have to ask yourself where the hundreds of thousands of fundamentalists suddenly came from. They kill Christians and persons of different religions. Why are they doing this? This needs to be answered by non-radical theologians.”
A Franciscan brother was recently abducted in Syria, and ACN met the custodians’ head in Jerusalem to discuss the prospects of Christians in Syria and the Middle East five years after the beginning of the “Arab Spring.” He believes it is imperative to rebuild the trust between Muslims and Christians, in his opinion, Christians need to pray for forgiveness and Muslims need to rethink their religious teachings.
CAN pointed out that the Arab Spring is now five years old, and has primarily resulted in chaos and the disintegration of nations, especially in Syria. Is there any reason for the hard-pressed Christians in the region to be optimistic in 2016?
Pizzaballa responded, “It is difficult to say whether there are reasons for hope. However, from a political and military standpoint, this year will doubtlessly be a decisive year. 2016 could be a turning point. In Syria, I detect a certain war-weariness among the parties concerned. Therefore, they will not be able to continue at this intensity for much longer.”
He continued, “This is because the Christians are not only suffering from the war and its consequences, such as the destruction and shortfalls in supply. Even if the weapons were to fall silent, it would remain difficult for them. You have to realize that this war also has massive social repercussions. After all, this war is not just a civil war, both in Iraq and in Syria. It has had a very distinct denominational, religious character from the very beginning. It will not be a simple task to rebuild the trust that has been lost between Christians and Muslims in these countries.
“Added to this are the economic consequences. It will be very difficult to rebuild these countries, even if they retain their current borders. The Christians are also worried about the uncertain political future. Which kind of government will Syria have? In answer to your question: Of course not all will leave. Those that could afford to or wanted to, are already gone. Those who remain are those who did not want to leave or could not leave. These are the ones we have to take care of.”
Then both interviewer and interviewee went all Catholic on each other, when CAN asked, how can a Christian forgive ISIS?
To which the Franciscan sage answered: “If we hate them, then they have won. And that is exactly what they want. Being human, it is of course extremely difficult to grant forgiveness and this cannot be done automatically, but in a frame of a process that requires time. But we have to put this in our perspective. And as an Italian who is living in safety, I am the last person who can tell a Christian in Aleppo how this is to be accomplished. I don’t have any answers for this either. But the Christians in Syria and Iraq have to ask themselves this question. The Gospels require this of us. If we fail to do so, our faith will remain theoretical. After all, our faith was born on Mount Calvary. This means that forgiveness has been at the heart of Christianity from the very beginning.”
