Catholic News Service
Nov. 2, 2004

Syria’s Christian churches face political, religious challenges

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

DAMASCUS, Syria (CNS) — The ancient Christian churches of Syria, small
in numbers but vibrant in faith, are facing new challenges brought by
political instability and religious extremism outside the country’s
borders.

The war in Iraq has unleashed violence and terrorism by groups claiming
to act in the name of Islam, sending tens of thousands of Iraqi
Christians — along with many Muslims — fleeing into Syria.

Although the Syrian government has steered a moderate course and
clamped down on any form of fanaticism, the percolation of Islamic
fundamentalism throughout the Middle East worries Christians in Syria.

Internally, the churches also face a major demographic problem, as many
of their younger members continue to emigrate to places of prosperity
and security abroad. Syria’s Christian community has shrunk in recent
years to about 10 percent of the population.

Despite these problems, most Syrian pastors and lay faithful speak
hopefully about their churches’ future in a country that has taken
pains to protect their religious rights.

“I think we can be optimistic. Christians have been here for many
centuries and are generally well seen by our Muslim brothers. There can
be no ‘clash of cultures’ because we share the same culture,” Armenian
Orthodox Bishop Shahan Sarkisian of Aleppo said in an interview in late
October.

Catholic leaders echoed that sentiment.

“When you look at the fundamentalism outside of Syria, I wonder if this
government could become a tool to help stop it. Perhaps Syria could
become a model for other countries,” said Melkite Archbishop
Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo.

Syrian Christians and Muslims categorically reject the accusation made
by the Bush administration that Syria supports terrorism. The topic
often provokes an animated response.

“I read that Syria is on the list of countries supporting terrorism.
Can you imagine such a thing? This is not true at all,” said Melkite
Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus.

Most Syrians say the terrorism accusation is simply U.S. politics. They
say Syria’s ruling Baath Party, which maintains total political
control, would never allow Islamic militancy to sprout here. And as one
Christian in Aleppo put it, the Syrian government is “too smart” to get
into a showdown with the United States.

But the arrival of so many Iraqi refugees is a daily reminder of how
quickly things can change. As in Syria, Iraq’s Baath regime ruled over
a secular state, and the Christian minority was well protected. Now,
many of them are fleeing for their lives from religious persecution in
Iraq.

“The Americans came and now the whole country has been opened up to
fighting. Every border is open, anyone can come in. Fundamentalist
Muslims are flowing into the country,” said one Iraqi Christian woman
who arrived with her family in Aleppo in October.

Syria’s Muslim leaders are among the most vigilant against extremist
manifestations of Islam.

Sheik Salah Kuftaro, who runs a highly influential Islamic foundation
and school in Damascus, said in an interview that Syrian society is
currently “free from the seeds of terrorism and extremism,” and he
predicted it would remain that way. His father, the late Syrian Grand
Mufti Ahmad Kuftaro, welcomed Pope John Paul II on his historic visit
to the Umayyad mosque in 2001.

The younger Kuftaro said one guarantee of continuing religious
tolerance in Syria is that his father trained hundreds of Islamic
teachers who will follow his example. One of them was recently named by
the government to head the Ministry of Religious Affairs, he said.

“So we have good hopes to be able to deal with any form of extremism
that may arise,” he said.

Syria’s bishops also make frequent speaking appearances at Islamic
meetings to preach tolerance and dialogue. Melkite Archbishop Isidore
Battikha of Damascus recently found himself cheered by a Muslim
audience when he declared that Christians must never be labeled
“infidels.”

“I see no serious clouds on our horizon. On the other hand, Syria is a
nation of young people, and young people are easily influenced. My
concern is that outside forces don’t end up influencing our Muslim
youth,” Archbishop Battikha said.

What appears to bother Syrian Christians much more than potential
problems with Muslims is that they feel somewhat forgotten in the West.
Media portrayals of Syria, they say, typically leave out the country’s
rich Christian heritage. Few Westerners would guess that Damascus is
the Arab capital with the largest number of Christians in the Middle
East, they say.

Syria was the land of the apostles, where St. Paul had his conversion,
where some of the first Christian writers and theologians lived and
where important monastic, liturgical and theological traditions grew
up.

That tradition survives in the 11 main church groupings, including the
Melkite, Syrian, Maronite, Chaldean, Armenian and Latin rites of the
Catholic Church, that form the Christian community in Syria today.
Church leaders and ordinary faithful cooperate ecumenically; two
“shared” Catholic-Orthodox churches have been built in recent years,
and it is not unusual for members of one church to attend Sunday
services of a different rite.

Weekly liturgical attendance in Syria is very high, according to all
the churches. Many young people return during the week for catechism,
charity clubs, Scouts or prayer meetings. One expert estimated that 60
percent of Syria’s Catholic youths belong to some kind of church
movement or group.

One is 25-year-old Nizar Matta in Damascus, a member of the Fraternity
of Holy Mary in his Damascus parish. He and about 100 other young
Catholics get together for activities that focus on prayer and service,
like helping the handicapped or city cleanup campaigns. There is no
strict agenda or regimen.

“We are just trying to live as Jesus taught,” Matta said.

At the same time, the evolving Syrian culture — complete with
Internet, cell phones and satellite TV — is changing the way young
people relate to the church and traditional values, several sources
said.

“Materialism and globalization are confusing young people and creating
a gap between faith and technology. More of their time is given to
pursuing material goods, and this is new,” said Ghassan Talab, an
Orthodox Christian in Damascus who heads the Syrian branch of an
international Catholic youth movement.

In a first-of-its-kind meeting in Syria, Catholic young people in
Aleppo organized a three-day Christian youth festival last summer. It
attracted some 5,000 people and was considered a huge success.

“I’ve had about 300 e-mails since then, thanking us and asking when the
next one will be held,” said Majd Maqdessi, a 24-year-old Catholic who
helped organize the event.

Emigration has taken away many young Christians, often the most
educated, and that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future,
church sources said. Most are seeking a better life in a more secure
part of the world, they said.

“If you ask young people, most of them would want to emigrate,” said
George Barnotty, a 30-year-old Christian agricultural engineer who is
trying to decide whether to go abroad. Housing and jobs are the biggest
problems in Syria, he said.

In Aleppo, the Melkite church has taken preventive action, offering
low-rent housing to some 300 Christian families. The archdiocese also
operates a small institute that trains young people for jobs in the
tourism industry, which some expect to grow rapidly if peace ever comes
to the region.

Increasingly, the churches of Syria are operating elementary and
secondary schools, too. Catholic schools were confiscated by the
government in 1967, but some exceptions have been granted in recent
years.

In an interview Oct. 27, Suleiman al-Khatib, a top official of the
Syrian Ministry of Education, said a recent law opens the door to
church-run schools, as long as they teach the government curriculum,
which includes some general religious education.

That news pleased Aleppo’s Archbishop Jeanbart, who has embarked on
major educational projects in his city. He is opening a new wing of the
Catholic high school this fall; it is financed largely by Catholic
donors living abroad.

The Pontifical Mission for Palestine, the operating agency in the
Middle East for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, also helps
fund Syrian church projects, such as the new Catholic-Orthodox
“ecumenical church” in a suburb of Damascus.

Archbishop Battikha said the Pontifical Mission also has provided
significant funding in areas of catechetics, summer youth activities,
residences for priests and a new theological institute in Damascus.

In Aleppo, Archbishop Jeanbart said Catholic social and educational
institutions offer needed services to Christians and Muslims alike. One
unique example is the 65-bed St. Louis Hospital, where seven Sisters of
St. Joseph do double duty as administrators and nurses. Most of the
patients are Muslims.

Archbishop Jeanbart said it was important to keep expanding church
programs for two other reasons: They remind Muslims that the church is
a global institution with big resources, and they show local Christians
that the church is planning ahead.

“Communicating confidence in the future is one of the greatest things
we can do for our Christians here,” he said.