After 30 Years In Syria, Outspoken Priest Is Expelled
Syria has expelled an Italian Jesuit priest for his outspoken criticism of the government's crackdown on a popular uprising. The Rev. Paolo Dall'Oglio has lived in Syria for 30 years, helping to restore a 1,000-year-old monastery that became a center for Muslim and Christian understanding.
"I am very moved by the face of many youth that have been suffering enormously to achieve their desire of freedom and dignity," Dall'Oglio said last week from the garden of his home in Damascus as he bade farewell to friends and supporters before his expulsion. "There are so many young persons that are put in jail and tortured, just because they have expressed, nonviolently, their opinions."
Dall'Oglio also knows Syria's minority Christians have real fears, but he says it is a generational issue. Older Christians have no experience with democracy — not in the family or in the community. Many younger Christians have joined the revolt because, he says, they believe democracy is better protection than the regime's violence and oppression against the Muslim majority.
They are real, he says, and in danger. When a young activist, photographer Basil Shehadi, a Christian, was killed by a sniper in the embattled city of Homs, the church in Damascus refused to hold his funeral — a sign of the divisions in the community. Dall'Oglio arranged to hold the service at his monastery, where he says young activists — Christians, Sunnis and Alawites — mourned the loss and prayed together.
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/18/155288114/after-30-years-in-syria-outspoken-priest-is-expelled
