The following report is written by an
Aleppo-based Jesuit priest, who preferred to remain anonymous.
Dec. 8, 2016
In the last few days
the news has come in thick and fast. The government forces have been retaking
the zones that it has lost control of ever since 2012. The people here are
hoping this military action will finally eject the rebels and that we will no
longer have their shells falling on us.
The Jesuit Center at
the Church of St. Vartan has also been hit, as the photo below shows. The
translation of the caption is: “The walls are charred and blackened, our
crucified Lord riddled with bullet holes, mutilated… But for five years He has
remained like that on the cross, in solidarity with our suffering and
isolation. He is still there, disfigured, like our city, revealing to us the
suffering of God, faced with the savagery of men.”
Civilians from the
eastern zones are beginning to flood in. Sadly, many associations, and indeed
even humanitarian organizations, are jumping at the opportunity to make money.
Everybody is trying to provide psychological support. It is easy to do and very
profitable. You put on a bit of music, you dance around the place; it doesn’t matter
if the children who take part are cold or not; it doesn’t matter if they take
part in your party or not; it doesn’t matter if this is their most overriding
need, or if they are in a psychological state that allows people to actually
benefit from this so-called “psychological support;” all that matters is to do
the work and get money.
But there are worse
things – like the organizations that turn up in great numbers when there is a
television camera filming, but then disappear again as soon as the filming
stops. Other people are going in with food and distributing it by throwing it
to people as if they were wild animals and not human beings.
In Jibrine (west
of the airport), where they are assembling and giving shelter to the refugees,
we have got to know the Palestinian Red Crescent. This organization is trying
to really do something, but doesn’t have the resources.
December 9, 2016
Apparently a thousand
refugees have arrived in Jibrine. They are hungry and they urgently need
immediate assistance.
December 11, 2016
It was yesterday
evening around 5.45 pm. Every Saturday the people come to the residence for
half an hour of meditation, followed by Holy Mass at 6 pm. Suddenly, there was
a violent explosion, followed by a second. I threw myself on the ground and a
third explosion followed. After a few moments of calm, I emerged from my office
to see devastation everywhere. Then there was a fourth explosion and I threw
myself on the ground again on the debris of the broken glass. Four grenades did
their damage
Sometimes, in the face
of disaster, people think that God should not have allowed it to happen. But
we, who live with death—by choice, for we could avoid it by moving out of the
city—can see that God is always there; His providence alleviates the evil to
the extent that man’s free will “permits” it.
With picture from Aleppo (© ACN)
Editor’s Notes:
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Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports
the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.
ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
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Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul
II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work
in over 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including
providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church
buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since
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