MIDDLE EAST French-speaking Catholic schools as an alternative to the exodus of young people from the Middle East

The fourth symposium was held in Amman over the weekend, attended by more than 250 representatives from different countries in the region. The funds raised by L’Œuvre d’Orient have enabled the creation of 211 educational institutions and projects. There are 400,000 students spread over 550 schools, which constitute a “stability factor”. The mission is to offer excellent training and professional opportunities.

Amman () – Organized by L’Œuvre d’Orient, the fourth symposium of French-speaking Christian schools in the Middle East was held on June 16 and 17 at Terra Sancta College in Amman, Jordan. It was attended by directors of schools from Lebanon, Syria, the Holy Land, Turkey and Jordan, as well as representatives and general secretaries of Catholic schools and many young people from French-speaking Catholic institutions who have decided to remain in their countries of origin instead of opting for migration like others. of his age.

Like the precedents in Paris in 2014 and 2016 and later in Beirut in 2018, the meeting made it possible to improve coordination between the different realities of the region. The aid granted is generally used to renovate schools, teachers’ salaries, support for children’s school transport and school and didactic material, including computer equipment. Since 2020, this effort has been financed in equal parts by the French government and L’Œuvre d’Orient, a total of 8.2 million euros, which has supported 211 schools and projects.

This year’s symposium brought together 250 participants: women and men religious, priests and laity whose mission is to educate young people from North Africa and the Middle East (Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey ). There are about 400,000 students in 550 French-speaking schools: 329 in Lebanon, 170 in Egypt, 35 in Jordan and the Holy Land, six in Iraq and eight in Syria.

This year the theme of the conference was “The future of young people in Christian schools in the Middle East” and highlighted in particular the important role that French-speaking Christian schools play in ensuring the stability of the populations in which they are located. With young people increasingly tempted by the prospect of emigration, the mission of French-speaking Christian schools is precisely to offer excellent training and professional opportunities at the local level.

The French ambassador to Jordan, Alexis Le Cour Grandmaison, read a message from the French head of state, Emmanuel Macron: “France has a long-standing commitment to the Christians of the East… This long-term commitment – the text continues – it has retained all its vitality and momentum. I have seen it in Lebanon, as the country continues to plunge into an unprecedented crisis. I have seen it in Iraq, where Œuvre d’Orient is doing remarkable work to support Christian communities and religious minorities, who have suffered especially under the yoke of Daesh [acrónimo árabe de Estado Islámico]. You could also cite the quality, strength, and usefulness of your work in other countries in the region, from Armenia to Egypt,” says the president, for whom “diversity” is “inseparable from identity, history, and culture.” from the Middle East. And precisely this diversity is “an essential condition – Macron concludes – for them to continue growing in the direction of peace, stability, tolerance and prosperity”.

Haifa Hajjar Najjar, the Jordanian Minister of Culture, intervened at the beginning of the work and stressed that Amman “could not have existed, nor could it have resisted, without this work, without this cooperation that we are doing together with you, the Christian schools [.. .]. Thanks to the Christian schools and the Christians of the Middle East, today we can live together peacefully”. Armelle Millcent, head of communication for L’Œuvre d’Orient, recalled that French-speaking schools are “fertile ground for improving inter-religious and inter-community relations and are a guarantee of cultural and confessional pluralism”. At the end, the president of the Catholic institution, Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch addressed the assembly asking “what kind of society do we want for the youth of the Middle East? Christians – he concluded – must be able to play an active role in these societies. We must overcome difficulties. The strength of Christians in the Middle East is to put themselves at the service of the peoples in the name of the Gospel”.