Speech of H.B. Patriarch
Gregorios III
during the Special Assembly for the Middle East
of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, 10-24 October 2010
Presence and Witness
In
most of our countries, the Antiochian
Church, with all its five denominations (Greek Orthodox, Melkite Greek
Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Syrian Catholic and Maronite) is a privileged
ecclesiastical place for living together with Islam and for Islam, in the Arab
world and for the Arab world. It is a privileged place for bringing to fruition
our Christian presence and putting it to work.
More important than this historical and
geographical reality is learning to discover, if possible, the true role of Christians
in the Patriarchate of Antioch, in Islamic-Christian history, geography,
culture and civilization. By all possible means, we must learn to see its
history, geography and civilization in the light of salvation.
Of
course, the Chaldean, Assyrian, Coptic (Orthodox and Catholic) and Latin
Churches, as well as, to a certain extent, the Armenian Churches (Apostolic and
Catholic), also have a role in this regard.
Our
common great concern is always this: how to conserve the Christian presence,
one of witness and service, in our predominantly Muslim Arab world? How can we
avoid, or at least slow down Christian emigration? That emigration means
gradually losing plurality and diversity in the Arab world, and the loss of
great possibilities for Islamic-Christian dialogue, which is a human and faith
dialogue, as well as being a dialogue of daily interaction of societies,
cultures and consciences.
The
living together that we have experienced and that we wish to continue is
threatened by emigration, the most significant and dangerous cause of which
lies in the crises which all originate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
the injustice arising from that. In the same way, extremism, fundamentalism,
violence and terrorist ideology, as well as the lack of equality before the law
and in employment and the limited possibilities for taking up different
positions of responsibility in political life, are products of this conflict.
Those things make Christians in most of our
countries feel troubled, fearing an unknown future in a society that is in the
majority Muslim. Often they are stigmatized by epithets such as fifth
columnists, crusaders, impious (kuffar), and collaborators with the West and
with Israel. Those and many other such things ought to be the subject of study in
the Muslim Arab world. Those problems should be treated with a great deal of
objectivity and Christians and Muslims together should identify the real wound
underlying the haemorrhage of Christian emigration.
We
have the duty of continuing the way of living together of past centuries. Therefore,
our Muslim brethren must not call us “dhimmis” (protected people); they
have to consider us full citizens, just as they are. We have the same rights
and duties as they do. We have to build up our countries together and work
together for a better future.
Living
together implies reciprocal charity, trust and respect, dignity, shared
responsibility and solidarity. The great challenge, for Christians and Muslims,
is that of finding out how we can live out our faith in the world of globalisation
and how we can transmit faith as a precious and holy inheritance to new
generations, to young Christians and Muslims, who are all exposed to the same
dangers in today’s world.
On this subject, the Council of Eastern Catholic
Patriarchs, meeting at Bzoummar (Lebanon) for their sixteenth congress, underlined
in their final message, of 20 October 2006:
3. “Our presence in the East is the expression of the will of God,
obliging us to be faithful to Christ, involved in witnessing to his love,
putting into action the teachings of the Holy Gospel and fulfilling the duty of
service to the societies in which we live. However insurmountable the
difficulties, we nevertheless detect
radiant signs of hope in the spiritual, cultural, social and national
wealth which adorns with the jewels of
its liturgical, theological and spiritual heritage, well-ordered in conformity
with the Alexandrian, Syriac and Maronite Antiochian, Melkite Greek, Chaldean,
Armenian and Latin traditions, the Church of Christ that is both one and
diverse …
4.
Christianity,
being an essential component of the regional culture, enriching the latter by
its traditions (cf. A new hope for Lebanon, 1) it follows that the Church calls
for a presence and a mission. So it becomes imperative to set up an exchange of
ideas with the faithful of other religions about spiritual, moral, social and
cultural values with a view to promoting social justice, equality and freedom
and laying the foundations of peace. (Conciliar decree Nostra Aetate regarding
the relationship of the Church with non-Christian religions, 2 and 3)
5.
Our Christian
faith implies being incarnate and lived out in a mission springing from the
heart of our faithfulness to Christ, our union with him and our determination to
imitate him and take him for our model, which supposes, to begin with on our
part, preserving our existence and presence in our land, in a spirit of
fellowship, mutual help and shared responsibility. The economic and social
crisis requires Church and State, all competent authorities and all people of
good will, to take an initiative designed to develop economic life and
instigate development projects that would provide job opportunities to young
people and help them put down roots in their native land, fulfil their
potential and give families the possibility of earning a decent, respectable
living in their own country.
6.
As for the
mission, it begins, in fact, by preserving living together in the face of the
growing conflict of cultures and religions. It is a living witness of the
possibility of co-existence in peace and creative complementarity in the heart
of difference. For religions, in their essence, are a factor for gathering and
not division, since the essence of each is worshipping God and respecting his
creatures. Eastern Christians are Eastern in their belonging and citizenship
and in fact are profoundly involved in their respective countries’ cause.” [1]
Indeed, we must mutually
encourage each other to remain in our countries, convince each other not to
shirk our responsibilities, not to leave the land of our social, political,
national and ethnic life, not to allow ourselves to retreat into ghettos, not
to emigrate either inside or outside our countries. We ought to resist fear in
the face of acts of terrorism and religious discrimination inspired by
fundamentalist groups.
For
an effective interaction with our societies and the different trends, currents
and directions that can be found there, there have to be Christians who are
open, present, witnessing in their society, involved in social, political and
economic life, participating fully in the life of their country, taking as
their starting points, firstly, citizenship and secondly, their faith and
Gospel values.
What
can most help the Christians of our countries to resist in the face of all
difficulties and not to emigrate is the faith-based conviction, that remaining
in these countries where Christianity was born and where God has planted them,
is in itself an apostolate, vocation and mission. The context of this mission is
the Church, a Church which has been Arab culturally and ethnically for
centuries, “the Church of the Arabs” according to the expression
of the late Father Jean Corbon, but also, in a certain sense, “the
Church of Islam,” because it is Emmanuel Church, God with us and for
us, with and for others. Those others, are our Muslim fellow-citizens, in the
predominantly Muslim Arab society, in which Christians are responsible for bearing
the message, proclamation and values of the Gospel, so that the Church can be
present and serving in that same society.
Gregorios
III
Patriarch
of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church
Translation
from French: V. Chamberlain
[1]Final
Communiqué of Congress XVI of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs Bzoummar 16 – 20 October 2006, Paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6