Monsignor Robert Stern
New York City, N.Y., Oct 31, 2010 / 07:55 am (CNA).- The Synod for the Middle East, a historic
gathering of the region's bishops, concluded October 24, amid controversy over
alleged bias in its concluding message. One expert on the region told CNA that
the document reflected pastoral needs, not a political agenda.
The bishops' concluding Message to the People of God criticized Israel in
detail, but omitted most of the criticisms made against Islamic governments
during the synod. Some observers took remarks about using religion to justify
injustices as a blanket rebuke of Israel, a charge participants denied.
Shortly after his return from Rome, synod participant Monsignor Robert
Stern, secretary general of the Catholic Near East Welfare
Association, spoke with CNA about some of the considerations that shaped
the synod's concluding message.
The synod really didn't have a political focus at all, Msgr. Stern said,
recalling that its main purposes were to strengthen bonds between diverse
groups of Catholics, and to ensure a continuing Middle Eastern Christian
presence and witness.
As such, he said, the synod's final message did not contain the same degree
of detail about every situation where Christians have difficulties in the
Middle East. Rather, he said, the message reflected two major concerns that
took priority as the more compelling matters, Palestine and Iraq. Migration
has greatly diminished both regions' Christian populations in recent years.
In this context, he said, the bishops' choices of emphasis and restraint
--which could appear to focus on Israel's treatment of Palestine, while
treading lightly with Islamic regimes-- should not be interpreted as political
statements, but as expressions of their pastoral priorities, and suggestions
toward peace.
They did list out several of the issues that are raised by (Muslim and
Christian) Palestinians, the monsignor said, noting that all of the specific
criticisms of Israel were ongoing issues of concern for the Christians who
live in Palestine. The synod fathers, he recalled, also mentioned being
conscious of the suffering and insecurity in which Israelis live because of
violence from some Palestinians.
Monsignor Stern also acknowledged that fear for the safety of Christians in
some Muslim countries may have prompted the synod fathers to moderate their
comments. This was, he said, a prudential judgment, since Christians
throughout the region can suffer consequences of their leaders' remarks.
Most of these bishops come from ... places where they're a very small
minority, they're bishops of a very small community, and they feel a lot of
social pressure living in an Islamic world, he observed. A lot of them are in
politically very uncertain circumstances-- where they're at risk, and their
people are at risk. So, they don't have quite so open and expansive of a way of
talking about the situation.
Just the experience for them to come to Rome, and talk to one another, and
experience a kind of free ambiance where anything can be said ... was a very
powerful experience for them-- to have solidarity, to be gathered around the
Pope, and to be able to reflect.
He said that the Middle Eastern bishops' Message to the People of God,
whatever its possible limitations might be, was a historic and crucial
statement-- giving guidance to communities whose decisions in the near future
could make the difference between their survival or disappearance.
The whole thrust of it is saying, 'What's our ... situation in the Middle
East, and what do we want to say to our people here, or our people abroad? How
do we stick together as Catholics? ... How do we deal with our brothers and
fellow citizens, the Muslims and Jews?'
