Syrian Christians face ‘new era full of mysteries’, says archbishop

‘We are the ones who must get busy and choose our role in the Syrian government of the future,’ said Archbishop Mourad.

Church leaders in Syria said they were working closely with the new leadership to ensure that religious freedom will be guaranteed and that Christians will be able to play a full role in the country’s future. Christian leaders have attended a number of meetings with the new government and received assurance that religious minorities will have equal rights under the new constitution, but remain cautious.

The Syrian Catholic Church’s Archbishop of Homs Jacques Mourad told Agenzia Fides that “the new era is full of mysteries”. Like other bishops, he noted the new regime’s reassuring words but also reports of widespread violence in some areas of the country and the affecting a large part of the Syrian population.

Almost 14 years of civil war ended last December when the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – previously affiliated with Al-Qaeda – toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December, giving rise to much uncertainly about the future of Christianity in Syria. Ahmed al-Sharaa, known as leader of HTS by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, was named last week as president for the “transitional period”.

Archbishop Mourad explained: “The previous regime presented itself as the defender of Christians. They always said: if we leave, the fanatics will return. Now many priests are pessimistic about the future. My answer is always the same – the situation is definitely incomparable to that of the past, when there were unimaginable crimes.

“But since the new violence, there are also those who say: ‘You saw that what Bashar al-Assad said is true.’ The result is that many Christians now, more than ever, see no other way than to emigrate, to leave Syria. And it is difficult for us to say that we must not lose hope.  We try, but people do not believe what we say. What they experience and what they see are too different.”

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Yet the archbishop also reported that Syrian Christians “continue our life as parishes and as a diocese, day after day”. Regional church committees have been re-established to work together on the training of catechists, because “many who had experience had left”, he said.

The dioceses, the Jesuits and the Bible Society have joined forces, “to set out together and we thank the Lord because so many young people show such desire, such courage and such generosity”. Pilgrimages have resumed to Mar Musa and to other monasteries, while services, processions, prayers and works of charity continue, the archbishop said. The regime in Damascus has not issued any regulations that affect the everyday life of the church.

Archbishop Mourad explained that “we are the ones who must get busy and choose our role in the Syrian government of the future, we must not wait for them to choose for us, we must try to work for it.” He added that there are only about 300,000 left in Syria – mostly Greek Orthodox – “but we can play a fundamental role”.

Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, voiced similar sentiments during his visit to Syria last week to express the Pope’s closeness to the Christian communities. Christians made up 10 percent of the Syrian population before the civil war, a figure now diminished to about 2.5 percent.

The cardinal acknowledged the immense difficulties and uncertainties Christians of all denominations face, but he stressed that their fears must not lead to paralysis. He told Latin-rite Catholics in Aleppo that the “new Syria” was “still in gestation”.

“But when it is born, it will need a good midwife, and that is a task for Christians,” he said.

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