The worst thing about living in Aleppo? According to Jean-Clément Jeanbart, the local Catholic archbishop, it’s the anxiety. Christians in Aleppo’s war zone, he writes, “are afraid of tomorrow, worried about their children’s future. The thought that they will one day be subject to fundamentalist Islam is an unbearable nightmare for them.”
Archbishop Jeanbart is a priest of the Melkite Greek Church, which is in communion with Rome. He represents one of the oldest Christian communities – “We have hundreds of millions of holy people resting in the soil,” he tells me over the phone – and, today, thanks to Syria’s civil war, one of the most endangered. But he believes it may be Christians in the West who can save it.
“I must say that all the people on which we rely, actually, are the Christians, either Catholic or Protestant,” says the archbishop. It is the Christians “who would perhaps do something about reaching peace” – unlike those who will only provoke even worse violence.
The route to peace and safety will be a long one. But Archbishop Jeanbart is adamant that negotiation rather than military action is the way forward. The removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he says, would “for the moment” be disastrous. “It would be worse. It would be a real war, internal war between everybody. Everybody would kill everybody. There would be hundreds of military groups fighting to get what they can, and to keep its people safe. It would be terrible.” Instead, he says, there should be a peace settlement including all factions. “Even the government of Assad and others. They have to all sit down together. And to reach that, the West has to put pressure on the opposition to accept.” The Assad government, he says, would be more willing to enter talks than the rebel groups.
He hopes that Christian pressure – especially in the US and even in Russia – can bring about a peace process.
American foreign policy is in the balance right now: in theory, Donald Trump is reluctant to engage in more military action, and his friendliness with Russia might make peace talks more likely. But at the time of writing, we do not know what his administration will look like.
As for the post-war settlement, the archbishop thinks Syria could be divided into semi-autonomous regions. “There could be a form of federalism, like the United States, for example, but not dividing and creating independent countries with autonomous foreign policies. Perhaps they could have autonomous local policy, administrative policy. But not foreign policy.”
Last week in Aleppo, bombing began again. Fighting between the rebels in the east and the government-held areas in the west restarted after a three-week ceasefire. Another 65 lives were lost in the first three days. The suffering in Syria can exhaust our comprehension and empathy.
But Aleppo’s Christians have everyday concerns as well as the fear of death and the threat of an extremist Islamic regime. There are food shortages and power cuts. Catholic schools, unlike the government ones, are generally fee-paying, which stretches families’ resources even further. So while agitating for peace, Archbishop Jeanbart is also setting up schemes to provide for his community’s needs.
There are 15 priests in the city and six churches (down from 12 in 2011). There is also now a network of 60 charity workers, mostly volunteers, who provide aid to the community. Every month 1,300 families are given a food hamper. Some 850 breadwinners who can no longer provide for their families receive a monthly stipend.
Aid workers in association with the Church also provide medicine, clean water, power generators, school fees and grants for fuel. About 100 displaced families live in convents and other Church institutions. Leisure and rest are also difficult in a war zone, and so young Catholics have organised plays, concerts and sports competitions. The archdiocese puts on bus trips for Catholic associations.
The Church has also dealt with emerging problems: many young families felt scared to have children, so last year the Church began paying a monthly child benefit. Archbishop Jeanbart reports that this scheme has helped “over 100 babies” to join the Christian community.
It is a remarkable joint effort to keep civil society going amid the rubble. And they are also looking ahead. A new campaign, Build to Stay, gives technical training in manufacture and construction work. Small businesses and start-ups receive grants.
Like so many leaders of persecuted Christian communities, Archbishop Jeanbart speaks of the extraordinary witness of his flock. “Christians in Aleppo are fewer than they were before the war,” he says, “but their attendance in great numbers around their churches and their fervent participation in the liturgies are surprising.” It is “enough”, he says, to “fill our hearts with hope for a better future”.
He asks for help from Christians in the West: with donations to organisations like Aid to the Church in Need, with our prayers and with putting pressure on governments to make peaceful resolution a priority.
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