Father
Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest and leader of the Deir Mar Musa
monastery in Syria who was exiled last June for criticizing
President Bashar al-Assad, has made his way back “to the liberated Idlib
suburbs.”
Mouna
Hashem (@mannoush)
published a picture several hours ago showing “Father Paolo praying with
activists & doctors upon his return to the liberated #Syria
suburbs last week” (see her tweet and the
picture above).
Dall’Oglio spent
decades at the ancient desert monastery near Damascus leading interfaith
dialogue. Last July 23, he spoke at an interfaith iftar meal at Rock Spring
Congregational United Church of Christ in Arlington, Virginia, where Christians
and Muslims celebrated the breaking of the day’s Ramadan fast.
A native of Rome,
Dall'Oglio says he developed an interest in Islam as a young man, specialized
in Oriental studies and arrived as a priest in Syria 30 years ago. He founded a
center for interreligious dialogue in a restored Byzantine monastery, Deir Mar
Musa al Habashi (St. Moses the Abyssinian), situated in a breathtaking
cliff-side desert site and featuring restored 11th and 12th century frescoes.
Days after he left Syria
to Beirut in June, he said he feels "solidarity with
the youth of the uprising, those who are suffering, killed and tortured for
trying to change society."
Father Paolo is well
known among Syrians for his work to improve understanding between Muslims and
Christians. He refurbished the 1,000-year old monastery in Nebek, north of
Damascus, which he opened to all faiths, as well as those of none.
Christians and Muslims
prayed and talked together, and gathered for each other's festivals. The regime
saw this as a threat and withdrew permission for his activities before the
uprising. Father Paolo subsequently turned the monastery into a place for
fearful Syrians to come and for families to mourn lost relatives.
Father Paolo told the Catholic News Service (CNS) in an interview
last July he had published an open letter to Syria
troubleshooter Kofi Annan saying a regime change in the country was necessary
in order to restore peace and bring democracy.
The letter, he told CNS,
"was the immediate reason I was expelled."
He has now come back to
Syria for interfaith prayers with activists in the liberated Idlib suburbs.
