Syria was attacked, robbed and abandoned

Francis received the AVSI Foundation in the Vatican, promoter since 2017 of the “Open Hospitals” project that has made possible 80 thousand health services in Catholic centers. After 12 years of war – the pontiff recalled – “the Syrian crisis continues to be one of the most serious in the world, with destruction, growing humanitarian needs, socioeconomic collapse, poverty and hunger at very serious levels”. The memory of the “good samaritans” who were killed while helping others.

Vatican City () – Like the unfortunate in the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan, Syria was “attacked, robbed and left almost dead on the side of the road. But she was not forgotten or abandoned by Christ and by many people, associations and institutions”. Pope Francis received this morning in audience at the Vatican the AVSI Foundation, promoter of the “Open Hospitals” project, thanks to which the three Catholic hospitals in Aleppo and Damascus continue to operate in Syria -which have been in operation for nearly a hundred years- and four clinics opened in the most isolated areas of the country.

After 12 years of war -Pope Francis observed- “considering the undetermined number of dead and wounded, the destruction of entire neighborhoods and towns, as well as of the main infrastructures, including hospitals, it is natural to ask: who can heal you now? Syria? The Syrian crisis remains one of the most serious in the world, with destruction, growing humanitarian needs, socio-economic collapse, poverty and hunger at dire levels.”

That is why initiatives such as “Open Hospitals” are so important. “Open to the sick, poor – the pontiff stressed – without distinction of ethnic or religious affiliation”, a sign of “a Church that wants to be a house with open doors and a place of human fraternity. In our welfare and charitable institutions – he added – people, especially the poor, must feel ‘at home’ and find an atmosphere of dignified welcome”. This allows to collect “a double fruit: to heal the bodies and repair the social fabric, promoting that mosaic of exemplary coexistence between various ethnic-religious groups characteristic of Syria. In this sense – added the Pope – it is significant that the many Muslims cared for in your hospitals are the most grateful”.

Francis also recalled that hundreds of “good Samaritans, including some volunteers” in these 12 years of war in Syria “have lost their lives helping others. All our gratitude goes to them.” He then reflected on the need to overcome the feeling of the limitation that arises from the disproportion between the immense efforts necessary to rebuild Syria and the possibilities of collaboration of each one, and invited to remember that “even the stony Syrian desert, after the first spring rains, is covered with a green mantle” thanks to many small drops.

Precisely the need not to take our eyes off this wounded land was the central theme of the conference “Not to forget Syria and the Syrians” organized in the Vatican by AVSI together with the department for the Service of Integral Human Development and the department for the Eastern Churches. This was an opportunity to present the results of the “Open Hospitals” project that began in 2017 and is sustained thanks to the contributions of small private donors, large companies, the Italian and Hungarian governments and numerous European episcopal conferences.

A total of 80,000 health services have been provided in the three hospitals in Damascus and Aleppo and the four dispensaries. “The goal -said AVSI secretary Gianpaolo Silvestri in his speech- is to reach 140 thousand services by the end of 2024”. But Silvestri also recalled that “the global crisis is having a devastating impact on Syria. The country has disappeared from the media although the needs continue to exist, as do the poor, the displaced and the fugitives”.