Jesuit And His Parish Under Seige In Syrian War

The Jesuit Courtyard in "Old Section" of Homs

A priest working in the devastated city of Homs in Syria has given an account of some of the horror he's facing every day. The priest, who cannot be named, sent a report to the charity Aid to the Church in Need, which is supporting Syrians with an aid package of £25,450 (€30,000) for a center in Homs, on top of £42,450 (€50,000) given last year. 

The report details the priest's struggle to provide basic food, shelter and medicine to more than 30,000 people fleeing violence amid ongoing bomb blasts and other violence.

He goes on to give an account of the “many explosions” of the past week in his quarter of Homs, one of which took place very near to his church. The car bomb left 11 people dead, of whom five were his parishioners. An earlier explosion caused the death of a 10-year-old boy from the Catholic community centre next to his church. 

Three other children were injured. In his report, the priest pays tribute to a Jesuit priest and 74 other Christians living in a “siege[–like] manner” in Homs' ancient Old City, where many historic churches, mosques and other buildings lie in ruins after fierce fighting. 

Facing a shortage of food and medicine, the Jesuit and his flock rely on aid parcels being sent to them. Describing life for the Jesuit and his people, the priest writes that people continue to cling to hope in spite of the difficulties. He said: “We have a great hope. Churches still ring bells for prayers and all people come and share Mass.” Quoting Pope Francis, he writes: “Nobody can steal our hope and joyfulness.”

Link (here) to the Zenit Story

Fr. Nawras Sammour, S.J. "We Need To Step Back And Realize That We Went Too Far,"

Fr. Nawras Sammour, S.J.

For Jesuit Father Nawras Sammour, the ongoing conflict in Syria is a professional challenge and a personal "have all left." Tens of thousands of Syrians have died and millions have been displaced in more than two years of fighting between President Bashar Assad's government and rebels seeking his resignation. "Sometimes I can't believe we Syrians have reached that level of violence," Father Sammour said. "I'm shocked. Shocked. "We need to step back and realize that we went too far," he told Catholic News Service May 31 during an interview at JRS headquarters near the Vatican. In a situation that is so tense and so divided, particularly among different Muslim groups, Father Sammour said Syria's small Christian communities may be frightened. But with Christian aid programs and partnerships with others providing assistance, they also enjoy a certain respect as non-partisans looking only to help others. Father Sammour is Jesuit Refugee Service's regional director for the Middle East and lives in Damascus, Syria. He was born in Aleppo, and his mother, brother and sister still live there, but his nieces and nephews

Link (here) to CNS 
Link (here) to watch a video documentary of the violence and destruction in Aleppo

Jesuit Bishop, "One Lives Day By Day."

Bishop Antoine Audo, S.J.

Syrians caught up in the ongoing fighting in the devastated city of Aleppo are exhausted and starving, a senior Antoine Audo, the Jesuit Chaldean bishop of Aleppo and president of the aid agency Caritas Syria, told the missionary news service Fides: "One lives day by day. I have the impression that people are more and more exhausted. They have all become poor and everyone is always looking for something to eat for himself and his family. "In the streets of Aleppo you can see the people that run endlessly with bags in their hand, trying to find a bit of bread," he said. He added that roads in the formerly prosperous city were being closed and that doctors were being threatened and forced to flee.

bishop has warned.

Link (here) to the Tablet

Jesuit Bishop In Syria, "“We Do Not Want To Become Like Iraq. We Don’t Want Insecurity, Islamization, And The Threat Of Islamists Coming To Power"

Jesuit Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo

The Syrian government must resist the uprising – and has the people’s backing in quelling forces seeking “destabilization and Islamization” – according to one of the country’s most respected Catholic bishops.   In a strongly worded defense of President Bashar al-Assad’s response to the protests and instability, 

Bishop Antoine Audo accused the media, including the BBC and Al Jazeera, of  “unobjective” reporting and unfairly criticizing the Syrian regime. The Jesuit who is the Chaldean Catholic Bishop of Aleppo went on to warn that, if Assad’s government were overthrown, it would cause widespread instability, a breakdown of basic services such as electricity, increased poverty, and a drive towards Islamization. 

Speaking from Aleppo in an interview with the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Audo said, 

“The fanatics speak about freedom and democracy for Syria, but this is not their goal.   They want to divide the Arab countries, control them, seize oil, and sell arms.   They seek destabilization and Islamization.   Syria must resist will resist.   80 percent of the people are behind the government, as are all the Christians.” 

Bishop Audo warned that, if President Assad were ousted, Syria would suffer the problems of a post Saddam Hussein Iraq, with a widespread breakdown of law and order. “We do not want to become like Iraq. We don’t want insecurity, Islamization, and the threat of Islamists coming to power.” “Syria has a secular orientation. There is freedom. We have a lot of positive things in our country.” The bishop was speaking after reports on Monday, June 13, of a third refugee camp being set up on the border between Turkey and Syria, amid no sign of an end to the violence and instability which dates back to the end of January.  The Syrian government has been strongly criticized for a hard-line military response to the uprising amid reports that the security forces have killed hundreds of protestors and injured many more. 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Syria’s armed retaliation against protestors as “unacceptable.” But the bishop stressed the scale of violence against Assad’s regime, saying how more than 100 police were killed within a few days, adding that the government had a right to defend itself. He said, “In some media organizations, such as the BBC and Al Jazeera, there is an orchestration to deform the face of Syria to say the government does not respect human rights and so on.” 

“The government respects people who respect law and order. Syria has a lot of enemies and the government has to defend itself and the country.” “There is a war of information against Syria. The media reporting is unobjective. We have to defend the truth as Syrians and as Chaldeans.” Stressing how the violence was centered on the country’s borders, especially in the northern sector overlooking Turkey, he said that, for most of the people in the Aleppo area, there was relative calm. But he did warn of increasing poverty, transportation and other communications problems, and described growing unemployment. He said,  

“Generally, life in Aleppo is very normal. Everything is continuing, but there is less work and transportation is poor.” In a reference to the country’s 1.5 million Christians, he said, “Our situation as Christian faithful is not really any different from other communities. We want peace and security.” “We do not want war and violence, and we very much hope that in the next few weeks the situation will be better.” 

As a Catholic charity dedicated to the persecuted and other suffering Christians, Aid to the Church in Need has worked with Bishop Audo to provide long-standing emergency aid for thousands of Christian refugees arriving in Syria from Iraq.

Link (here) the blog entitled, The Realm of the Virgin Mary 
Link (here) to the statement on the same subject by the public relations department of the Syrian Jesuits.

Dancing Jesuit On Being Labeled Effeminate And Incorporating Yoga Into His Retreats

Fr. Saju George, S.J.

Religion has to be felt, believes Fr Saju George Moolamthuruthil SJ (Society of Jesus). And he has chosen dance, that too Bharatanatyam, to help people experience God. 

This ‘Dancing Jesuit’ priest, a native of Peruva, Kottayam, is in the city to give a Bharatanatyam performance on Saturday  as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Kerala Jesuits. With over two decades of experience and hundreds of performances to his credit, mostly in Europe and the US, Fr Saju is more than happy with the acknowledgement he has garnered over the years.  

“I have got positive responses from most quarters. You can say, I have survived...!,” he says, breaking into a smile, obviously hinting at the criticisms hurled at him when he had started off. The tag Christian, that too a priest, has given him enough tough times. With his dance retreats - where he explains the essence of Indian dance, its variations, the spirituality incorporated in them, its aesthetics, the Natyashastra, the ‘bhavas’, ‘ragas’ et al through demonstrations and lectures -  Fr Saju has gone through enough and more opposition. 

“I conduct the retreats for groups. I incorporate yoga and spirituality in the sessions. And certain groups don’t welcome them. I have faced stiff opposition from certain orthodox sects, some churches...,” he pauses, hinting he would rather talk about the positive side of his journey so far.

He has a mission to fulfill. “Take the Indian art - the traditional dance, theatre, music - the world over, especially to those who can’t afford,” he says. Coming to the first part of it, he has performed over 150 times outside India. “I make each performance an interactive one.” He talks more from his PhD thesis on the concept of Nataraja based mainly on the text ‘Thirumandiram’, which explains the Dancing God concept, ie Shiva as dancer, and connect it with Bible. “I touch upon Christian theology and philosophy and ask for suggestions from the audience.” Talking about the second part, ie taking dance to those who can’t afford to learn it, he is doing that through ‘Kalahrudaya’, which is coming up as a universal home of art and culture. “It would cater to the young people, less privileged ones in society who are interested in art forms. We’ve got the land, some seven acres, away from Kolkata city, and it would start functioning in full swing in a year or so. I am envisaging something on the lines of Kalakshetra or Kalamandalam,” he says.  He is also running ‘Shanti Nir’ (Nir means nest of peace) of the Calcutta Jesuit Province which offers care and support to needy children and also help with low-cost housing, self employment and medical help.On the whole, Fr Saju wants to blend dance and social work. “My priority is to show the world that an artist can be a social activist too. I want to cater to the real needs of poor. Next month, I am going to Japan for a fund-raising programme for the tsunami-affected people,” he says. He had that liking for art forms right from childhood and got fascinated by dance when he saw his sister learning it. Side by side, he also got that call from inside to indulge in missionary activities. Fr Saju left Kerala, in 1985 for Kolkata, to join the Society of Jesus, after his Plus-II.He did his MA in dance from Kolkata, had his ‘arangettam’ in 1996, came down to Chennai to study philosophy, during which he learnt Kuchipudi under Vempati Chinna Satyam. Simultaneously, he got to learn Bharatanatyam, the Kalakshethra style, and soon realised that the latter suited him.  

“I am at home with Bharatanatyam,” he says. He emphasises one point. “I have been very conscious about not being labelled ‘effeminate’. I stress that a male dancer should dance like a male, except for those portions which need feminine postures from him. I even tell my students about this,” he says.

Fr Saju, 44, fondly remembers people like C V Chandrasekhar, Leela Samson, Kalanidhi Narayanan and Priyadarshini Govind who have encouraged him throughout. He is currently the research adviser at the Kalai Kaveri College of Fine Arts, Thiruchirappalli.

Link (here) to read the full article at Express Buzz

Dutch Jesuit In Syria

The Al Ard center, close to Syria's border with Lebanon, is an oasis for forty mentally-disadvantaged children and adults and their only chance for help – with enough places for only one-in-three in need.

The center provides specialized care otherwise unavailable in this rural part of the country. The land is rich but the people poor.

Two decades ago, a Dutch Jesuit priest Frans Van der Lugt and a Syrian industrialist joined forces to help – and Al Ard, or The Land, was born.

Link (here) with video