Father Ibrahim Alsabagh speaks to his community in the Latin Parish of St. Francis in Aleppo, Syria. (Credit: Courtesy of Latin Parish of St. Francis.)
Ishtartv.com
- cruxnow.com
Inés
San Martín, Dec 18, 2019
It’s been almost nine years since
the beginning of the war in Syria, and a local priest says the situation in the
war-torn city of Aleppo continues to worsen, becoming ever more “dramatic.”
In a letter sent to a group of
his Italian contributors- one of whom forwarded it to Crux -
Franciscan Father Ibrahim Alsabagh said that he is beginning to feel like
“there is no future for the Middle East,” because “the interests of the
powerful are obvious, and Syria continues to be the battleground of the great
nations.”
“I apologize, I know it’s been a
long time since the last time I wrote, the motive is very simple: I don’t know
where to begin,” wrote the priest, from the Latin Parish of St. Francis in
Aleppo. “In the west side of the city the bombing continues, and they once
again approach our region. There are still many civilians dying.”
“But it is the people who
continue to pay in all this, who continue to suffer, infinitely,” Alsabagh
wrote, while denouncing the “normalization” in weapons sales, the destruction
of countries and foreigners seizing the natural resources of Syria.
“This world is not good,” he
wrote.
He didn’t mention any specific
“foreign powers,” but it’s long been alleged that the war in Syria is not only
a war against the terrorist organization known as ISIS, but also a proxy war
for Russia and Iran, both supporting Bashar al-Assad Assad, against the United
States and Turkey, both supporting various rebel groups.
The Pentagon has troops in the
country conducting anti-ISIS operations, and there are no plans for withdrawal
at this point.
Assad has long called for the
U.S. to pull out, considering it an occupying force as he waged his
anti-insurgency campaign, which is backed by Russia and Iran. Assad’s regime,
along with many insurgent groups, are accused of war crimes.
Instead of withdrawal, the U.S.
is preparing a bipartisan sanctions package which was approved by the Senate on
Tuesday.
According to Alsabagh, the war is
continuing in Aleppo. He claims the country’s natural resources, including its
gas and oil, are unavailable to the population, amidst a “rigidly cold” winter.
In addition, there are many
seriously ill people unable to receive treatment, including cancer patients.
“Syria and its people continue to
survive missiles and bombs, but we do not know if they will survive the ongoing
hunger pangs,” the priest wrote.
The region, he insisted, is at
the center of many competing interests and in the crosshairs of several
religious, economic and political tensions, fueled by wars of domination and
power.
“It is as if the Middle East,
where our peoples live, has to pay for the evil that exists right now all over
the world,” he wrote. “But the culprits are many other countries. There was a
wall in Berlin. Many walls have been built in Syria. And there’s no visible end
for the war.”
The Franciscan wrote than in
other moments of history it seemed there was no possible human salvation, peace
or stability, but in these moments “the Lord sends a prophet of his, who
invites the peoples to raise the eyes of the heart, with a farsighted gaze
aimed at the horizon, to hope for the salvation that comes from above.”
“Man cannot save himself, God
himself intervenes in the history of humanity to bring salvation,” he wrote.
“In this salvation we believe and hope, the salvation that comes from above.”
Yet God’s salvation passes
through human hands, made of mud and human hearts, made of flesh, like the
heart and body of Mary and Joseph, he wrote.
Beyond the country’s own
instability, the crisis in Lebanon has further suffocated the Syrian economy,
with banks blocking churches from accessing the foreign aid they have received.
“During these years we have
always tried not to stop the projects started to help the population, but now
we have reached a point of extreme need,” Alsabagh wrote. “In the last few days
we have managed to arrange the distribution of clothes for 800 children, and we
are preparing some small celebrations for Christmas, but nothing more.”
He compared the current situation
his parish faces to his own childhood. When his parents would run out of money
at the end of the month, they would go “in search of a treasure” forgotten in a
drawer.
“We have reached this point now,”
the priest wrote, but now there are no hidden treasures left in the drawers.
“We are no longer able to
continue with our projects. On Christmas, everything will have to be rationed,
even the chocolate we have for the children,” he said.
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