Nuncio to Damascus calls Fr Dall'Oglio a 'courageous voice' of dialogue in forgotten Syria
Card Zenari remembers the founder of Mar Musa on his seventieth birthday. The monastery remains his “most living” legacy. The tragedy of the missing is compounded by that of refugees and the displaced, the ongoing war, and last year’s devastating earthquake. Increasingly frequent, Israeli raids have cut links with Lebanon which are an “umbilical cord". Pope Francis’s proclamation of the martyrs of Damascus is a “breath of fresh air”.
Rome (AsiaNews) – Cardinal Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio in Syria, spoke to AsiaNews about Fr Paolo Dall'Oglio, a Jesuit priest from Rome who disappeared more than 11 years ago under mysterious circumstances and who will turn 70 on Sunday.
“In addition to the memory of him, the monastery [of Mar Musa] is what remains of him. He revived it from ruins, and restored it with great skill and competence. He founded the community that, despite reduced numbers, continues to exist in his spirit of interfaith dialogue, still a destination in the mountain that attracts [pilgrims and believers]. This is his most living and most symbolic legacy.”
Born in Rome in 1954, after years of mission in the Arab country, he disappeared on 29 July 2013 and nothing has been heard from him ever since, although rumours have multiplied over the years about his fate even if none have ever proved reliable.
“His courageous voice is missing, which probably bothered someone. Some agreed with him, others not so much; however, he was a very influential character," Cardinal Zenari said, speaking about the Jesuit's mission in Syria during tragic years of war and jihadi violence.
“Starting with the monastery, he left a very beautiful and symbolic legacy" that remains alive as do his memory and the attempt to shed light on his fate and that of many others in Syria, Christians and non-Christians.
The Church has repeatedly raised the issue of missing people, while the UN General Assembly approved the creation of an independent body in June of last year in order to shed light on the fate of more than 100,000 people who went missing during the darkest and most violent years of the war.
One of them is Fr Dall'Oglio, who founded the community of Deir Mar Musa al-Habashio, in northern Syria, about 80 kilometres from Damascus. He was last seen in Raqqa, then a stronghold of the "Caliphate" in Syria.
A charismatic figure in Islamic-Christian dialogue, the cleric disappeared overnight on 28-29 July 2013 after entering the headquarters of the Islamic State group to advocate the release of several hostages in jihadi hands, including Christians.
Two bishops of Aleppo are also among the missing, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yaziji, who have not been heard of since 22 April 2013, kidnapped in the town of Kafr Dael.
According to some witnesses, they were negotiating the release of Fr Michel Kayyal and Fr Maher Mahfouz, kidnapped in February of the same year. When they reached a checkpoint, the car was stopped by armed men who shot the driver to death.
"In the past 11 years, we have tried to follow all the leads, at least those that gave the greatest guarantees, but so far no truth has been reached," the nuncio said.
“With each passing year, hope is tested more and more” for Fr Dall'Oglio and for “the two metropolitans of Aleppo who died a few months earlier, together with the priests and the many Christians in a sad picture because they represent another tragedy linked to the war."
These abductions, which are odd because they were not followed by any demands nor negotiations for the release of the victims, are part of events that marked the most brutal phase of the war, with jihadi groups raging across the land.
On the tenth anniversary of the bishops’ disappearance, on 22 April 2013, the Syriac Church established an "ecumenical day" for the missing, putting the spotlight back on a sensitive issue in the - vain - hope of getting news about their fate.
On Fr Dall’Oglio’s 70th birthday, a documentary will be screened in Rome centred on the founder of Mar Musa, a man of dialogue and listening.
Recently he was the centre of a meeting at the PIME centre in Milan. Fr Jihad Youssef, who now heads the Syrian monastic community spoke about him (for the full video, click here), stressing a message of exchange and bearing witness that is still relevant today.
Meanwhile, the situation in Syria is still tragic, even if international media focus has now shifted to Gaza and Lebanon.
“There is the tragedy of internally displaced persons, about seven million, plus the refugees in the surrounding countries, about six million, for a total of 13 million displaced persons and refugees, an impressive number” and a “sad record”, lamented Cardinal Zenari.
“Many of these displaced people have been displaced several times because they move from one bombed out location to another, with huge difficulties in finding housing,” especially for those who had fled to Lebanon and are now returning.
About 530,000 people have left Lebanon for Syria. “According to UN agencies, 70 per cent are Syrians, the remaining 30 per cent are Lebanese or other nationalities. This is a tragedy within a tragedy,” the prelate explained.
“Then there are the unresolved consequences of the earthquake [of February 2023 in Syria and Turkey], and the [civil] war that began [almost] 14 years ago, which has not yet ended. At night, and during the day, we wake up or hear Israeli raids that are increasingly frequent here in Damascus, as in other places in Syria. They have also struck the main access routes to Lebanon, which for us represented an umbilical cord for air and road travel.”
For the nuncio, another critical element is the presence of "six foreign armies operating in Syria” who so far “have kept away from getting involved in the conflict. Of course, we can imagine how difficult it is for the government to keep six foreign armies at bay, especially Syria’s, which is quite weak."
This explains why so many people, especially young people, choose to emigrate. “We have had an exodus of Christians," he says. “About two thirds of those who have left or are leaving in recent weeks, are young people."
Against the background of such a gloomy picture, the cardinal emphasises an element of joy: “The proclamation by Pope Francis of the 11 holy martyrs of Damascus of 1860. On that occasion, about 3,000 Christians were killed along with the 11, including eight Franciscan religious and three lay Maronite brothers.
"They represent a bright spot, a breath of fresh air for the Church in the midst of this grayness,” he concludes. “I hope that their history and memory have broken through the curtain of silence and forgetfulness around Syria; they are the very ones who bore witness to faithfulness with their blood.”
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