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   SEVENTH GENERAL CONGREGATION   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 14 OCT 2010 (VIS) - The Seventh General Congregation of the   
   Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops was held this   
   afternoon in the Vatican's Synod Hall in the presence of the Holy Father. The   
   president delegate on duty was His Beatitude Ignace Youssif III Younan,   
   Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians, Lebanon.   
      
   Extracts from some of the Synod Father's speeches are given below:   
      
   CARDINAL PETER KODWO APPIAH TURKSON, PRESIDENT OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR   
      
   JUSTICE AND PEACE. "Awareness of the website of the Pontifical Council for   
   Justice and Peace should be encouraged as an instrument at the service of the   
   local Churches for a deeper study of Church Social Doctrine. On this subject,   
   the council undertakes to complete the translation of the Compendium of Church   
   Social Doctrine into Arabic. Furthermore, given the council's intention to set   
   up a summer school at the dicastery, we could also consider inviting and   
   involving priests from the Middle East. ... Churches and minority religions in   
   the Middle East must not be subject to discrimination, violence, defamatory   
   propaganda (anti-Christian), or the denial of permits for building places of   
   worship or for organising public functions. In fact, the promotion of the   
   Resolutions against the Defamation of Religions in the framework of the United   
   Nations should not limit itself to Islam (Islamophobia) in the Western world.   
   It should include Christianity ... in the Islamic world. We could also promote   
   the adoption, again within the UN framework, of a resolution on religious   
   freedom as an alternative to the resolution on the defamation of religions".   
      
   RAYMOND MOUSSALLI, VICAR GENERAL OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF BABYLON OF THE   
      
   CHALDEANS, JORDAN. "We are a part of the history and culture of this Middle   
   Eastern region, and if we were forced to abandon it we would lose our identity   
   within a generation. For this reason I hope that one of the things to emerge   
   from this Synod will be the need for much closer collaboration between the   
   heads of the various Churches, in mutual dialogue with our moderate Muslim   
   brothers. As we know, our Churches, together with the clergy in Iraq, are being   
   attacked. There is a deliberate campaign to drive Christians out of the   
   country. Fundamentalist extremist groups have satanic plans against Christians,   
   not only in Iraq but throughout the Middle East. ... We want to make the   
   international community aware that it cannot remain silent in the face of the   
   massacre of Christians in Iraq, and to encourage countries of Catholic   
   tradition to do something for Iraqi Christians, beginning with placing pressure   
   on their own governments. We are experiencing a catastrophic moment, with the   
   emigration of families and the loss of our people who still speak the Aramaic   
   language spoken by Our Lord Jesus Christ".   
      
   ARCHBISHOP EDMOND FARHAT, APOSTOLIC NUNCIO. "The Middle Eastern situation today   
   is like a living organ which has received a transplant it cannot assimilate,   
   and with no specialists capable of healing it. As a last resource, the Muslim   
   Arab East turned trustingly to the Church, believing her capable of obtaining   
   justice. But this has not happened leading to disappointment and fear.   
   Confidence has turned to frustration and the crisis has become deeper. ...   
   Today, the Church endures injustice and calumnies As in the Gospel, many leave,   
   others lose heart or flee. The frustrated and desperate take their revenge on   
   the innocent. But lying behind the physical assassinations and the most   
   disastrous failures is sin. ... The action of God continues throughout history,   
   and the Church in the Middle East is now experiencing the way of the Cross and   
   purification, which leads to renewal and resurrection. The present suffering   
   and anguish are the cries of a newborn infant. If they persist it is because   
   the demons that torment our society can be chased away only by prayer. Perhaps   
   we have not prayed enough!"   
      
   ARCHBISHOP RUGGERO FRANCESCHINI O.F.M. CAP. OF IZMIR, TURKEY, ADMINISTRATOR OF   
      
   THE APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF ANATOLIA AND PRESIDENT OF THE TURKISH EPISCOPAL   
      
   CONFERENCE. "The little Church of Turkey, at times ignored, had her sad moment   
   of fame with the brutal murder of Bishop Luigi Padovese O.F.M. Cap., president   
   of the Turkish Episcopal Conference. In a few words I would like to close this   
   unpleasant episode by erasing the intolerable slander circulated by the very   
   organisers of the crime. It was premeditated murder, by those same obscure   
   powers that poor Luigi had just a few months earlier identified as being   
   responsible for the killing of Fr. Andrea Santoro, the Armenian journalist Dink   
   and four Protestants of Malatya. It is a murky story of complicity between   
   ultra-nationalists and religious fanatics, experts in the 'strategia della   
   tensione'. The pastoral and administrative situation in the vicariate of   
   Anatolia is serious. ... What do we ask of the Church? We simply ask what we   
   are lacking: a pastor, someone to help him, the means to do so, and all of this   
   with reasonable urgency. ... The survival of the Church of Anatolia is at risk.   
   ... Nonetheless, I wish to reassure neighbouring Churches - especially those   
   that are suffering persecution and seeing their faithful become refugees - that   
   the Turkish Episcopal Conference will continue to welcome them and offer   
   fraternal assistance, even beyond our abilities. In the same way, we are open   
   to pastoral co-operation with our sister Churches and with positive lay   
   Muslims, for the good of Christians living in Turkey, and for the good of the   
   poor and of the many refugees who live in Turkey".   
      
   After the Synod Fathers, a number of auditors also arose to address the   
   gathering. Extracts from some of their remarks are given below.   
      
   MARCO IMPAGLIAZZO, PRESIDENT OF THE SANT'EGIDIO COMMUNITY. "It is in the   
   interest of Muslim societies that Christian communities should remain lively   
   and active in the Middle Eastern world. A Middle East without Christians would   
   mean the loss of a presence within Arab culture, one capable of making   
   pluralist claims in the face of political Islam and Islamisation. Without them,   
   Islam would be more isolated and fundamentalist. Christians represent a form of   
   resistance to an Islamisising totalitarianism. Their presence in the Middle   
   East is in the general interest of the societies there, and of Islam. ... Not   
   only is there a Christian past to be defended in the Middle East, but also a   
   vision of the future based on the conviction that all Christians have a   
   historical vocation: to communicate the name of Jesus, to live it and, thus, to   
   work creatively to build a civilisation of coexistence, something the whole   
   world needs. Here lies the duty of dialogue. ... The Middle Eastern Churches   
   could be the artisans of a civilisation of coexistence, an example to the   
   world, if they reintegrate and re-claim the high and strong sense of their   
   mission".   
      
   PILAR LARA ALEN, PRESIDENT OF THE FOUNDATION FOR THE SOCIAL PROMOTION OF   
      
   CULTURE. "Today the foundation is present in forty-one countries on four   
   continents. In the five Middle Eastern countries, our main area, we have   
   generated more than ninety-eight programmes with a turnover of more than sixty   
   million euro. In the wake of these years of experience in the field, I would   
   like to comment on the situation. In the Middle East we are witnessing the   
   disappearance of entire Christian communities while the whole world, especially   
   Europe, looks on indifferently. At the same time war is part of daily life;   
   poverty is not the only reason for conflicts, more often it is the religious   
   factor. Finally, Christians continue to live around their Churches, even if   
   sometimes this is a mere social formality. The conclusion is that the Christian   
   presence is fundamental for peace and reconciliation. But they should act   
   without detaching religion from public life, as has happened in Europe, because   
   this is of no utility to development. Religious values allow us to progress at   
   both a social and personal level. Thus Christians must adapt their behaviour to   
   their beliefs, overcoming hatred and resentment and seeking forgiveness. They   
   should not preach the evangelical message in their words, then seek vengeance   
   and armed conflict in their deeds. Every person has the obligation to obtain   
   the formation which allows him to acquire the conditions to progress in his   
   professional and Christian life".   
      
   At 6.30 p.m. the president delegate invited two representatives of Islam to   
   address the congregation: Muhammad al-Sammak, political adviser to the Grand   
   Mufti of Lebanon, for Sunni Islam; and Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh   
   Ahmadabadi, professor at the Faculty of Law at the Shahid Beheshti University   
   of Tehran and member of the Iranian Academy of Sciences, for Shia Islam.   
      
   MUHAMMAD AL-SAMMAK. "Two negative points demonstrate the problem faced by   
   Eastern Christians: The first point concerns the lack of respect for the rights   
   of fully equal citizenship when faced with the law in certain countries. The   
   second concerns the misunderstanding of the spirit of Islamic teaching,   
   especially as concerns relations with Christians whom the Holy Koran qualifies   
   as 'nearest among them in love to the believers', justifying this love by   
   saying 'this is because there are priests and monks among them and because they   
   do not behave proudly'. These two negative points, with all they entail ... are   
   bad for us all - Christians and Muslims - and offend us all in our lives and in   
   our shared destinies. For this, we are called upon, as Christians and Muslims,   
   to work together to transform these two negative elements into positive   
   elements Firstly, by respecting the rules of citizenship, which impose equality   
   first in rights and then in duties. Secondly, by denouncing the culture of   
   extremism in its refusal of others and in its wish to have the monopoly on   
   ultimate truth, and by working towards the promotion and spread of a culture of   
   moderation, charity and forgiveness, such as respect for differences of   
   religion and beliefs, of language, of culture, of colour and of race. As we are   
   taught by the Holy Koran, we put ourselves at the judgment of God about our   
   differences. Yes, the Christians in the Middle East are being tested, but they   
   are not the only ones".   
      
   "The Eastern Christian presence, which works and acts with Muslims, is a   
   Christian as much as Muslim need. It is a need not only for the East, but also   
   for the entire world. The danger represented by the erosion of this presence on   
   the qualitative and quantitative levels is a Christian as well as an Islamic   
   concern, not only for Eastern Muslims, but for Muslims all over the world.   
   Furthermore, I can live my Islam with all other Muslims from all States and   
   from all ethnicities, but as a Middle Eastern Arab, I cannot live my Arab   
   identity without the Middle Eastern Christian Arabs. The emigration of   
   Christians is an impoverishment of Arabic identity, of its culture and of its   
   authenticity.   
      
   "For this reason I underline once again, from the stage of the Vatican, what I   
   have already said in Mecca: I am concerned about the future of Eastern Muslims   
   because of the emigration of Eastern Christians. To maintain the presence of   
   Christians is a shared Islamic duty as well as a shared Christian duty. The   
   Christians of the East are not an accidental minority. They are at the origins   
   of the presence of the East before Islam. They are an integral part of the   
   cultural, literary and scientific formation of Islamic civilisation".   
      
   AYATOLLAH SEYED MOSTAFA MOHAGHEGH AHMADABADI. Speaking English he said: "During   
   the past few decades, religions were faced with new conditions. The most   
   important aspect of this is over-extended confusion of their disciples in real   
   scenes of social life, as well as in national and international arenas. Before   
   World War II, and in spite of technological developments, the followers of   
   different religions, more or less lived within their own national boundaries.   
   Neither the enormous problem of immigration existed nor did the great expansion   
   of communication that connects so many different social groups together. ...   
   But today we witness the great changes that have occurred in the past half   
   century and that this transformation continues at an incredible pace. This not   
   only had a qualitative effect on the relationship between religions, but has   
   also affected relationships between different segments of religions and even   
   with their own followers. Certainly no religion can remain indifferent toward   
   this rapidly changing state".   
      
   "In societies where different ethnic groups with their own languages and   
   religions have been placed, for the sake of social stability and ethic sanity,   
   one is required to respect their presence and their rights. Concordance of   
   interests and social welfare on national and international levels is such that   
   no one group or country can be disregarded. This is the reality of our time".   
      
   "We should also consider what the ideal condition is for believers and   
   followers? How is the best situation achieved? It seems that the ideal world   
   would be the state where believers of any faith freely and without any   
   apprehension, fear or obligation, could live according to the basic principles   
   and modes of their own customs and traditions. This right which is universally   
   recognised should be put into practice by States and communities".   
   SE/VIS 20101015 (2190)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)