Vatican's "One Minute For Peace" Initiative Meets Reality

Vatican Radio  published an article entitled Aleppo bishop: '1 Minute for Peace initiative important for Syria'  on June 8, 2017.  How important it is for Syria is probably not as important as the title of the article would lead a reader to believe, even though "Bishop Antoine Audo [of Aleppo, Syria] says it is important and he expresses his admiration for Pope Francis, whom he said, 'uses little things to not forget peace and to say that everybody is able to build peace in the world'". [1]

Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo
http://www.gulf-times.com/story/484825/Two-thirds-of-Christians-have-left-Syria-Aleppo-b

Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo continued to say, quoted from the article above [2]:

“I admire this initiative: it helps us a lot. But at the same time as bishop living in Aleppo and Syria I have to say we are very tired about the perspective of peace; we wait, we wait, we wait, and at the same time our families and young people are leaving to emigrate and this is a very big sadness for us” he says.

The bishop says the situation, in particular of Christians in Syria, who are a small minority is difficult, but “we continue to stay rooted in the faith and in the truth and after that, we will see.”

Audo speaks of the current situation in Syria's largest city, which in over six years of violence has become the biggest symbol of the damage wrought by the Syrian war.  He says that since Christmas there have not been bombings as the fighting is now continuing outside the city.

He says they can hear the bombing but generally the situation is more peaceful, the situation less stressful than a few months ago.

“But without regular water, without electricity, and the big problem is the economic situation; there are no jobs and 80% of the people are without a job” he says.

As Pope Francis points out, Audo says, “Work is dignity”:  “we have lost our dignity; everybody has become poor and asking for food aid to live”.

He also said that a big problem today is the obligation for young people to enroll in the military service, so you have so many young people who are very afraid of being forced to fight and they flee.

“This means the war is not finished yet” he says.

Regarding the current fear of terrorist attacks and the idea that situations of conflict, marginalization and exclusion provide fertile soil for radicalization, Bishop Audo says he believes that most of those attracted to extremist militancy are Sunnite youths, without any hope.

“If we look at the psychological level I think they are experiencing a big humiliation before the West generally; the powerful West is dominating, is leading politically with its provocative culture of ‘teaching’ others; ‘the West is bringing human rights, civilization.’ And on the other hand, according to the point of view both of educated and of simple people, they are experiencing a big humiliation” he says.

This, Audo says, is a big fault of the western world because “I think the West has lost faith in God and in Christ so it is not able to have the sensitivity to respect the other; everything is power, everything is finance, everything is strategies and there is no future for these politics.”

This blogger does not wish to raise the possibility of an implication where there is none.  However, solely  from his (and no one else's) perspective, he reads into the concluding words of Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, Syria, in the final paragraph of the article that the "West" that "has lost faith in God and in Christ" includes the Vatican and those running it, paying only lip-service to God and prayer, and only on occasion, and only for a brief moment.

Why does the voice of God seem to speak only through those who suffer and not those who are powerful, political and proud?

This blogger's heart goes out to all those whose dignity as human beings has been humiliated by the self-righteous ones who are always at the ready to teach everybody else a lesson when they do not even know how ignorant and incomplete they themselves are for God gives to all, each with qualities that are missing in others.  This blogger prays that in their suffering of "big humiliation" that their souls will one day rise and ascend, following the paths of the most humble people humanity has come to know, Christ, the Son of God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.  He also prays that mercy be given to those "Sunnite youths" who under duress have no where to turn, certainly not toward the Catholic Church for it is not there for them, but to be radicalized in order to survive, and survive with an ever so small a morsel of human dignity.


[1] http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/06/08/aleppo_bishop_says_1_minute_for_peace_important_for_syria/1317780
[2] Ibid.