Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Christians, Muslims must overcome distortions, says nuncio
Christians, Muslims must overcome distortions, says nuncio
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published February 27, 2009
Farmington Hills — In the desert, in the dead of night, a man may see the form of what he believes at first to be a monster.
But if he gets closer, he may realize that it’s not a monster, but a man.
And if he gets closer still, he might realize that it’s his own brother.
This is the image of Christian-Muslim relations painted by Archbishop Celestino Migliore last Saturday at the Farmington Hills Manor, addressing a conference interested in preserving and supporting Christianity in the Middle East.
Archbishop Migliore, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, was joined by a number of dignitaries in addressing more than 300 Chaldean Catholics during a fundraising banquet for CAMECT, Christian Arab and Middle Eastern Churches Together.
“In our day, many Christians and Muslims happen to meet each other as in the desert night, where the human silhouette is completely distorted,” Archbishop Migliore said. “Muslims look at Christians as the monsters of the Crusades, as described in the history books… Christians on the other hand see Muslims as a threatening monster of religious intolerance,” he told the gathering.
Chaldeans
Metropolitan Detroit has the largest concentration of Chaldeans in the United States. Here are some facts:
• Chaldeans are Catholic Iraqis descended from the ancient Assyrians.
• Of the more than 160,000 Chaldeans in the United States, about 100,000 live in Metro Detroit.
• The Southfield-based Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle is the Diocese for Chaldeans living in the eastern part of the United States. |
The aim of the banquet, and of a three-day symposium that took place over the weekend, was to raise awareness of Christianity in the Middle East. The Detroit area has one of the largest populations of Chaldeans outside of the Middle East, numbering about 100,000 — many of them immigrants from countries in the Middle East. Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim, bishop of the Southfield-based Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, hosted the banquet.
In countries such as Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, Christians make up less than 4 percent of the overall population — yet it’s still the region in which Christ lived and Christianity has its origin.
Archbishop Migliore said the Vatican had a particular interest in the Middle East, small thought its Christian population is, because of its meaningful part in Christianity.
“There in the Middle East exists not only the history of salvation, but also the geography of salvation,” he said. Much of the symposium focused on the plight of Christians in the Middle East — especially in Iraq, where kidnappings and murders have driven out much of the Christian population since the beginning of the current war.
Archbishop Migliore relayed to the congregation a message he was sent by the bishops of Iraq, who asked the support of Chaldeans in other parts of the world.
The nuncio then described some of the encouraging signs of progress Christians have made to establish a lasting presence in the Middle East — especially the investments made in schools, which serve not only Christians but also Muslims and Jews. Archbishop Migliore also said that, though it is difficult to address a centuries-old conflict with words, that’s what the Church continues to advocate in its pursuit of religious freedom and equality in the Middle East.
“For some of you who have to leave your country because of oppression, to speak of dialect is not easy,” the archbishop said. “We cannot resort to violence, we have to use dialect.”
For information on the Christian Arab and Middle Eastern Churches Together, visit CAMECT.
|
