Aleppo, the Bishop and the Martyred City
14/3/13
“I was supposed to be going to the Rimini meeting, but it’s not the right time to be travelling”. Antoine Audo, Jesuit and Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, prefers to stay close to his people who are suffering. He thinks it is not the right time to be taking pointless risks in order to take part in conferences on the situation of Christians in Syria. While explaining the reasons behind this decision, he also told Vatican Insider about the conditions that people are living through in the martyred city which was once one of the most flourishing parts of the Arab world, but which now has entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble.
Since the start of the war, you have left and gone back to Syria many times. What about now?
Now it is much more dangerous to leave Aleppo. I have to be very careful. Besides, it is not the right time to leave my people alone. The tension is rising and having a Bishop here now is more important for our community, if for nothing else simply for moral support.
Do you feel threatened?
Everybody tells me and the other bishops to move around discreetly without wearing bishops’ clothing in order to avoid being kidnapped as the Syrian Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim and the Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos al-Yazigi were.
What has happened to them since?
There are many rumours. The most recent ones have been accredited by the newspapers to a politician in the US, who said that their kidnappings could be linked to a ‘plot’ with implications for the different churches, forcing the Syrian Patriarch to leave Damascus for Turkey. But these rumours are not serious. They are just curious speculation.
Has news of Father Dall’Oglio’s disappearance spread?
Everybody’s talking about it. Everybody is wondering why he came back to Syria. The conflict, chaos and fighting between the different factions mean that it’s all unclear and difficult to find explanations for.
Is there a lot of confusion in Aleppo too?
Here, uncertainty and fear have been growing for months. Everybody’s constantly asking the same question: what will become of us? Concern is particularly palpable in the Christian neighbourhoods. In my view, Aleppo is still seeing the worst of the conflict, at least from a psychological point of view.
Why is that?
The people living in other areas, including Damascus, have escape routes for when their neighbourhoods become swept up in the conflict. The people in Damascus, Homs, Latakia and the coast can flee towards Lebanon, the Valley of Christians and Beirut. Aleppo, on the other hand, is locked in the grasp of the warring factions. Turkey is allowing weapons through as well as groups of combattants who are fighting Assad’s regime, and they all still have their sights set on Aleppo. And all the while, it is said that the Kurds are consolidating ever more control over the North-East.
The satellite images released by Amnesty show entire neighbourhoods of Aleppo reduced to rubble.
At least half a million people have fled their homes. Some areas have been deserted entirely. 80% of the population have not worked for months on end. Many no longer have money even to put food on the table. Abject poverty is everywhere, even in the air, in a city which once boasted flourishing dynamism.
What mood can you sense among your church-goers?
Fatalism is growing among many. They say anything could happen, that whatever happens will be God’s will. That’s what people say to keep themselves going. Others try to react, and the most immediate and realistic reaction is to flee, as people have been doing for some time. Whoever still has money and transport flees to Lebanon, the Gulf countries, or Europe. All the poor people stay here.
So, it’s either flee or give in to fate. Is there no other option?
Young people are quite simply incredible. Members of Scout groups have started putting sports facilities back together again. They are going to open them up again, running the places themselves. They want to overcome the fear and sense of ruin which seem to seep into every nook and cranny. On 28 July, while Pope Francis was in Copacabana at the Rio World Youth Day, more than a thousand young people took part in a day of prayer and sharing in spiritual communion with millions of others of the same age. I and three bishops from this city took part in a number of those events from here. And next week, after the Assumption, around 200 young people will be organising a festival for hope. Given the conditions they live in, our young people are very touched and comforted when they hear Pope Francis encouraging them not to allow their hope to be taken away from them.
By Gianni Valente http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it
©2013, Assyrian International News Agency.
