Educate So As Not to Fall Prey to a Vision of Conflict between Civilizations or Religions
Your Excellency Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, President of the
Episcopal Conference of the United States,
Your Eminences and Excellencies!
I am happy to meet with you and be able to share with you some reflections on the situation of Christians in the Middle East with a particular accent on Iraq and Syria.
When I went to Aleppo, Syria, in January 2011, to preside at the rite of dedication of the new Cathedral of the Latin Apostolic Vicariate and when, in December of 2012, I went to Iraq for the re-consecration of the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which had been profaned and bathed in the blood of martyrs on October 31, 2010, I never would have imagined that we would find ourselves in the present situation. The explosion and subsequent evolution of the Syrian conflict as well as the more recent drama unfolding in Iraq have burdened our hearts with an enormous suffering. Great is the wound inflicted to the dignity of the human person, but especially and above all to our Christian brothers and sisters, both Catholic and not. Still in the 21st century, as if history has taught nothing, we must witness barbarities and atrocities which strike above all the weakest: the elderly, women and children. Along with my preoccupations for the thousands of refugees, chased from their houses on the plain of Nineveh, I have ever in mind the bishops and priests still in the hands of kidnappers in Syria, and – finding myself in the United States – I cannot forget the journalists so brutally killed. May the Lord grant peace and eternal repose to them, and to their families consolation and hope: that their sacrifice will not remain without effect, but will move the conscience of the entire world.
On one hand, the action of the Holy Spirit continues to make the Church fertile in every part of the world, manifesting its characteristic maternity (cfr. LG 64). Yet, on the other hand, it must be recognized that the Churches, which gave rise in great part to the diffusion of the Gospel in the Apostolic era, are now shaken at their foundations and threatened in their very existence. We know the difficulties of the Church in Jerusalem, and we are always more convinced that a durable peace in the Holy Land would contribute significantly to the stability of the whole Middle East. We see the drama of the Church in Antioch (geographically located in modern day Turkey, although the Catholic and Orthodox Patriarchs of that See reside in Syria and Lebanon). As for the Church of Babylon of the Chaldeans, the fruit of evangelization of the Church of Antioch, which once played a key role in the East, we fear now for its loss of active presence. If these churches, the historic mothers of the evangelizing mission, are struck at their foundations, we, as their children, cannot be silent.
In addition to being part of a single Apostolic College with our brother bishops in that region, we are duty bound to our own faithful to speak out: the ongoing presence of these churches in their place of origin touches the source of our common Christian faith. God chose that part of the world as “the cradle of a universal plan of salvation in love.” This adds a specific value to every effort we undertake to respond to this dramatic page in human and Christian history. For nearly two thousand years these Christians have kept alive the flame of the first Pentecost in those lands. As the Church in the United States celebrates the passage of 225 years since the establishment of its first diocese in Baltimore - an event in remembrance of which I willingly join with you - it is all the easier to appreciate this two millennia of existence, now so direly tried. I give heartfelt thanks for the constant calls you have issued to the American faithful asking for solidarity with their elder brethren in the faith. As Pope Francis said when he received the Members of the Oriental Congregation at the end of our Plenary Session last November: “Every Catholic therefore owes a debt of thanks to the Churches that live in that region. From these Churches we may learn, among other things, the effort of the daily exercise of the spirit of ecumenism and of interreligious dialogue. The geographical, historical and cultural context in which they have lived for centuries has indeed made them natural interlocutors with numerous other Christian confessions and with other religions“ (21 November 2013).
Also in the name of these brothers from the Christian East and on behalf of the Dicastery that helps the Holy Father in his solicitude for their Churches, I come before you today to extend a word of thanks. Firstly, I thank you for the constant and generous attention which you demonstrate by the Holy Friday Collection for the Holy Land. Additionally, however, gratitude is deserved for the extraordinary actions of this past month: I think firstly of the prayer for peace in Iraq, which you held in all the dioceses of the country on Sunday, August 17. Also, I am grateful for the gestures of charity and solidarity in the form of the extraordinary collection of last Sunday and next Sunday, as also for the efforts to raise the awareness of the political authorities, especially by means of the letter of August 13th last from His Excellency Msgr. Kurtz to President Obama. Moreover, there is an ordinary organ of assistance, part of the Catholic Church in the United States, which the Dicastery recognizes as indispensable to its service and exhorts you to promote in every way possible: I refer to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). Along with the Pontifical Mission for Palestine, it is part of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO), and its President, the Archbishop of New York, is among the members of the Congregation
for Eastern Churches. Certainly, I do not wish to forget the work of Aid to the Church in Need and Catholic Relief Services, nor the great hospitality which the United States has given over the decades to all of the Eastern Churches in the diaspora. This is clear enough from the presence, here in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, of the bishops representing these churches (Region XV for ad limina visits). The land of liberty, where rights are protected for individuals and groups alike, has effectively honored its foundational values by this wonderful welcome of all the various traditions of Eastern Christianity. In particular, in accordance with the will of the Second Vatican Council, adequate structures are guaranteed in the United States for all Catholics by which to provide the pastoral care proper to them. Thanks be to God for this reciprocal interaction, which has become an ordinary aspect of ecclesial life and which in time will only continue to grow, producing benefits also for the Latin dioceses. Indeed, the varied liturgical and disciplinary patrimony of Eastern Christianity is a spiritual wealth from which all in the Church should profit, while making it their responsibility to guard it from erosion.
The situation in Iraq is still one of extreme emergency: the refugees of the plain of Nineveh need all sorts of basic necessities to insure their survival, also in Erbil and Baghdad. No less urgent are efforts to prepare for their return to their own homes or, if necessary, to relocate them in more secure parts of the country. While fully conscious of the fact that no one should be forced to remain in the country against his will, I echo the call frequently expressed by the Chaldean Patriarch, His Beatitude Sako, that neither should the Christians of Iraq be constrained to flee; for one thing, this would only lead to a still more destabilized future for Iraq. Care must be taken that economic assistance always be coordinated with prudence and to this end I recommend keeping the relevant Apostolic Nunciatures apprised. Not only can they contribute to the flow of accurate information, but they can, when necessary, render a service of vigilance over the effective use of funds.
With regard to relations with the Islamic world, there is, besides the undiminished worth of the conciliar declaration Nostra Aetate, the more recent deliberations made by the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops. It culminated in the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, especially numbers 19 - 28. In dialogue both clarity and fraternal respect are needed: it seems that a prime example of the same is the declaration just issued, last August 12th, by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. While rightly asking all spiritual leaders to take positions against such blind and barbarous violence, we continue to maintain an attitude of closeness and reciprocal esteem. For our part, we have the responsibility of educating our faithful lest they yield to a vision of conflict between civilizations or religions. We must recall that it has taken Catholic theological and biblical reflection centuries to arrive at its present capacity for interpreting our sacred texts without undue fear of violating the depositum fidei.
Finally, I am certain that you are already following with great attention the interventions of the Holy See in its various modes, from the words of the Holy Father to those of the Cardinal Secretary of State and the representatives of the Holy See at the various international organizations, especially the United Nations’ headquarters in Geneva. We are meeting in Washington, the seat of the government of this sovereign nation; however, even as American citizens, you are called to support the role of the United Nations, prominently present in New York, as the appropriate organ for decisions and concrete interventions in matters of general international concern. If the Assembly which meets in that glass tower in New York has frequently been compromised or blocked by opposing vetoes of self-interested factions, it must, nevertheless, become an ever more effective forum through which to prevent the repetition of violence and injustice of the sort that we are discussing. In the more than fifty years passed since the signing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, following the horrors of the Second World War, progress has been made in this regard, and we must not abandon the hope that first united the world in the cause of peace. Exactly one year ago, on Saturday, September 7, 2013, a day of prayer and fasting for peace reminded world leaders of the power of prayer and made those who hold power listen to the voice of the people crying out: “No more war!”
Thanking you for your attention, I entrust you all, together with your brother bishops, priests and faithful of the dioceses which you shepherd, to the maternal intercession of the Immaculate Virgin. Having contemplated with joy her Nativity, close to her sanctuary here in Washington, we pray that she continue to watch over all Americans. Thank you.
This item 11349 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
