A voice crying in the wilderness

The Jesuits and Syria

 Feb 10th 2014, 13:01 by B.C.






AS I have written in previous postings, the Society of Jesus pops up in the most unlikely places, from the battle zones of Latin America to the radiated ruins of Hiroshima and even (since the election last year of the first Jesuit pope) at the apex of ecclesiastical power. Long regarded as the brainiest and most culturally adventurous arm of the Catholic church, many Jesuits have stood out for their willingness to go to the edge—of civilisational fault-lines or of battle-lines in a physical sense.

The latest reminder of that comes from the besieged Syrian city of Homs, where an operation to relieve the suffering of trapped civilians has been in progress, under cover of a very patchy ceasefire. A complex diplomatic game had to be played in recent days in order to let this limited mission proceed; but before the diplomacy even started, a big part in alerting world opinion to the plight of people in Homs was played by an elderly Dutch Jesuit, Father Frans van der Lugt, who spoke to the world from the embattled city centre in a shaky video clip. Speaking in Arabic, he said:

Christians and Muslims are going through a difficult and painful time and we are faced with many problems. The greatest of these is hunger. People have nothing to eat. There is nothing more painful than watching mothers searching for food for children in the streets...I will not accept that we die of hunger. I do not accept that we drown in a sea of hunger, letting the waves of death drag us under. We love life, we want to live. And we do not want to sink in a sea of pain and suffering.

Prior to the emergence of the film-clip, Father van der Lugt's Dutch colleagues had been out of direct contact with him for a few months, and they were worried about him. A trained psychotherapist who is now in his 70s, he has been living in the Middle East since 1966. In the 1980s he set up an agricultural project outside Homs where young people with mental health problems could work. At an earlier stage in the current war, many Christians left the city after rebel forces moved in; he chose to stay, telling objectors that "I am the shepherd of my flock". He is said to be the last European living in the heart of the city, now besieged by government forces. In a documentary to be shown by a Dutch TV channel this week, the courageous Jesuit's friends and family speak of their fears for his life and their respect for the defiant choices he has made.

Concern over Father van der Lugt's safety became particularly acute after the disappearance of last July of the best-known Jesuit in Syria, Father Paolo dall'Oglio. The Italian priest was kidnapped in rebel-held territory and his fate is unknown, although he was said by a senior opposition figure to have been killed by his captors.

A Jesuit spokesman, Jan Stuyt, told the Dutch press (link in Dutch) that the filmed message from Father van der Lugt seemed like a genuine expression of his feelings and had not been made under duress. But the spokesman also sounded a note of caution about the evacuation of civilians from Homs, a concern that is being aired in other Dutch circles. His experience in the war zones of ex-Yugoslavia told him that "it can be dangerous to separate men from women". As is recalled by many people in the Netherlands (where embarrassment over the failure of a Dutch UN contingent to stop the Srebrenica massacre is still acute), taking certain non-combatants out of the firing line can sometimes enable an attacker to act with even greater ruthlessness.

But whatever the military interests of besiegers or defenders, the world is compelled to pay attention when a man who could easily be living in comfortable Dutch retirement tells the world that he and the people around him are sinking in a sea of pain.


Source
.