Christmas in Jordan 2015. Experience among confreres on the forefront

Visit to the St. Joseph of Zarqa in Jordan.

16-28 December 2015

I arrived in Zarqa after a journey of nearly 27 hours , of which less than 4 spent in the air. Due to a mechanical problem of the Greek plane that from Rome was supposed to take me to Athens, we were able to take off 4 hours later and then we missed the connection. Thanks God the Greek company provided us with a place in the Sofilet hotel at Athens airport where we could spend a comfortable night, and a ticket for a Royal Jordanian flight the next afternoon. I arrived in Amman in the late afternoon of Wednesday, December 16.

The welcome was warm as ever. The climate is mild and dry.

One thing that struck me is that despite all the information we had and the fear of terrorism, I have not seen deployments of police or tighter controls than usual. It seems a very quiet atmosphere.

When I arrived at our center, I was struck by the lights placed on our shrine and our home, holiday lights for Christmas you could see from afar, placed there without any fear of reprisals.

Father Hani, in charge of the shrine, is very busy with the last preparations for the celebrations of next Sunday and for Christmas which is almost at the door. We are already in the novena and every day at 6:00 pm about thirty people come to pray and attend Mass.

Entering the church I immediately noticed the large crib made in front of the altar and a large white tent covering the back wall and behind which a big surprise is waiting to be revealed next Sunday.

The school

Our complex is located outside the city of Zarqa, in an area commonly called "Azzarqa Aljadida", the new Zarqa. When we arrived in 1984, we bought a piece of land to build a school under the patronage of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. At that time there was nothing in that area except a factory of household items in bacallite and a factory filters. It could easily be called a barren rocky desert. The city was located about 5 kilometers to the south, and 1 km to the north are both the oil refinery that the thermal power plant.

When people saw that a school was rising, they began to purchase plots of land and gradually the area was populated. Today we can say that the new Zarqa area is inhabited by about 100,000 people and new plots of desert are prepared to become residential areas.

The school began as a vocational training center to help children who were unable to go to higher classes, especially because of their poor academic performance. With our two-year courses of training as carpenters, electricians, electricians, mechanics, turners, they could hope to find an entry into the world of work. The school then developed adding courses of Computer maintenance and Hotel management (cooking, receptionists and clerks). These last two courses guaranteed a diploma granting the students the opportunity to access the university.

The big breakthrough came in 2007 when we saw the need to open even to the youngest from the seventh class onwards. This was done to give better training and to ensure that a more consistent flow of people joining our higher courses.

Today the school has over 600 students with 60 people working on the management and teaching. Christians number about 130, the rest are Muslims.

We can proudly say that here it embodies one of the fundamental points of the spirituality of Don Orione, that of charity that does not close the door to anyone and makes no distinction of race or religion, because it sees in everyone the face of God in need.

The church

Inside the center stands the shrine of Our Lady Queen of Peace, which was inaugurated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1994. It was wanted by local people to thank Our Lady of the fact that Jordan has been spared from the Gulf War. This is a very significant thing for Christians in Jordan, especially when you consider that even in this crisis that has hit the Middle East in the last two or three years and the rampant terrorism, Jordan still seems to be free of major problems.

The Christians living around our shrine were soon attached to us. Since the early years, although families were few, we began to gather children and young people to give them a bit of catechism and doing other activities. This resulted in the fact that more people approached us and began to come to attend Sunday mass in our shrine.

Over the years the activities grew as also grew the Christian population of the area and the number of people attending to our services. Now every Sunday there are three Masses (including one Saturday evening). You have to remember that in Jordan, being a Muslim country, Sunday is a working day for the weekly holiday is Friday. Slowly we were able to develop and equip the hall under the shrine to be used for parties; people helped us to prepare a beautiful grotto for the Virgin Mary in the garden next to the church, and also to create a space where, when there is good weather, families may gather, after the Mass, to chat, play games and so on.

Sunday, December 20 was a day of great celebration. During last 4 months, the people who came to church saw a big tent that covered the back wall. When they asked why, the answer was "It's a surprise for Christmas." Naturally there were those who could not resist the curiosity and tried to peep through the curtains.

Sunday evening at the community Mass with a packed church, the veil has been lifted and in the background appeared the beautiful painting that covers the entire back wall. On the right you can admire the ascension of Jesus to heaven with the apostles looking up to the Messiah; in the center at the top there is the dove of the Holy Spirit, below it the wooden cross and again below the tabernacle coming up from a huge chalice that reaches to the floor. But the most interesting and innovative part is the one on the left and is a re-interpretation of the dream of Don Orione of Our Lady of the blue mantle.

At the foot of the Madonna you can see Don Orione with an Iraqi child in his arms. Near him other children, Iraqis, Syrians, Egyptians, an African mother with the baby tied behind according to African style, and finally an old Jordanian man and a Palestinian woman. All these figures represent real people and show the reality of Don Orione that through our work, has also become father of refugees. The Jordanian man and the Palestinian woman were represented as a sign of thanksgiving to this nation and especially to the Christians of our area who initially provided help and support to our work for the refugees.

Particularly moving is a little girl with red hair. It is a child of the village of Qaraqosh, near Mosul sadly famous these days. The story of this little girl is drawn on her dress. You can see the festival days when they lived in the shadow of the church, then the arrival of terrorists of Daesh that killed many and destroyed everything, then the flight to Turkey and the boat trip to Greece. Unfortunately the crossing resolved with a shipwreck and the little Angie is one of many children who died in it. Finally you can see her flying like an angel in heaven with God.

Everyone commented with amazement at the beauty of the painting and those who had known the little Angie could not hold back a tear of commotion.

After the celebration we all went down into the Hall for a moment of fraternity with the honor bestowed on the painter, who is also a refugee.

Signs of the Providence of God who never abandons us: The painter Aitham Aljameel, a few days ago received a call from the embassy of Australia saying that he and his family have been accepted and can now go there; furthermore the Bishop of Amman has informed us that the Italian Bishops' conference has approved another tranche of aid for our refugees and he re-expressed his great desire that our shrine may soon become a parish.

The Refugees

Much has been said on the problem of refugees and their impact on European society. Jordan is a country bordering to the north with Syria and to the east with Iraq, the two main sources of refugees of the present moment. It is also on the border with Palestine and Israel to the west and to the south with Saudi Arabia and Egypt. You can then consider Jordan a strategic country, the center of many international interests. If this was the source of its international prestige it has also been the source of most of its problems. Since the sixties, during the war between Israel, Jordan and Egypt, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in Israel or in the occupied territories of Palestine took refuge in Amman and especially in the city of Zarqa, north of the capital, a small town which in a couple of years saw its population more than doubled.

With the new refugee crisis due to the wars in Iraq and Syria, Jordan was been again invaded by refugees, welcoming within two years about 1 million Syrians (all Muslims because the Christians have gone to Lebanon) and more than half a million Iraqis (many of whom are Christians from the northern areas destroyed by the fanaticism of Daesh).

In August 2013 in our center started a project for the Syrians in collaboration with CEI. Their help concluded in March 2014 but the programme could continue thanks to the Spanish Association Manos Unidas. The programme aimed to give each family coupons with which they could go to the local supermarket and buy food and cleaning material. They also received from us blankets, mattresses and stoves. This project continued until August 2014. In total, about 250 families have been helped by giving 1 coupons per month (1 year for 250 families with an average of 5 persons per family).

When the project for the Syrians ended, started the big crisis of the Iraqi people for whom a similar project has been opened, again with Manos unidas and various donations from Italy. This was renewed 2 times and ended December 20, 2015. We want to renew it. Also here an average of 200 families were helped each month.

The volunteers of our shrine helped us to manage all these projects. They also showed great sensitivity to the issue.

In September 2014, the Caritas Jordan has been faced with the emergence of many Christian Iraqi families needing a place where to live. Many parishes have offered a hand including us. 13 families have arrived, of which 11 are still here. They're all waiting for the visa to go to some countries, mainly in Australia country which for some time has expressed willingness to accept Iraqi refugees.

Unlike other refugee centers we have taken care that their children were immediately sent to schools so that none of them have lost a year of school.

To them, in addition to housing we have provided a monthly allowance for food and other needed material.

It was thought then to create a council for the poor to help even some Jordanian families in need.

Where do are the resources come from? In addition to the already mentioned CEI, Manos Unidas, Caritas, there have been many donations from orionine communities around the world and especially the generosity of the people living around us that has contributed not only with work but also bringing material, food, clothes , money, and so on.

There is also an educational project. In collaboration with our professional technical school and sponsored by the CEI and AVSI, an Italian association, which has previously worked with us in a similar project. We hope this could start in January. In the afternoon, when the school closes, we will start special courses for young refugees to teach them, languages, computer use, but also carpentry, mechanics, electricity, etc.

It is ChristmasDecember 24 was a day of celebration. It's Christmas Eve and all families are busy to decorate their house, prepare the tree, buy gifts. Mrs. Della Sheton, from England, came to visit our center. She had already come to visit us a few months ago and had promised to do something for the families hosted by us. She has kept her promise. Back in England she has contacted among the families of her parish 11 families and asked each of them to prepare Christmas gifts for our families. Then she prepared packages with names and came here to deliver them. Her idea is to create a relationship, an open line of communication so that these refugees may feel accompanied if only by friendship. We had lunch together. It was truly a day of celebration.

Then came the evening, the time of the liturgy. Shortly before the Mass we had the surprise visit of the Governor of Zarqa accompanied by the chief of police and of the security services. They wanted to come in person to express their greetings for this feast and assure us that there will always be some police cars guarding that no one will create us problems. I was pleased with their simplicity. Our Mass began at 10:00 pm and the church was packed when suddenly 80 more people came in. They are immigrants from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh working in a nearby area where tax-exempted factories produce for export. Their conditions are difficult and the wages very low. They do not have the freedom to move or go around except on occasions like this and under surveillance. Most of them are Buddhists, but many are the Christians. It has been nice to see their joy, the desire to take pictures in front of the crib or the Christmas tree to send to their loved ones at home.

Christmas traditions include the official visit to families and households, a lengthy ritual full of formalities which occupies whole days. Among these visits there is always the official visit of the civil authorities to all the representatives of the churches gathered together. This year it was the duty of our center to organize such a meeting. It was nice to hear the governor to mention that the Qur'an and the Gospel agree in presenting God as a God of mercy and love. Then, speaking privately with me he expressed his thanks for what the Catholic Church does to the society through its schools and hospitals and he added the sentence: "A Jordan without Christians would be like food cooked without salt: it would not be good." I do not think he has read the Gospel but immediately came to my mind the passage of the Gospel "You are the salt of the earth". He could not do us a better compliment.

Now has come for me the time to leave. I'm glad of these two weeks spent in fellowship with brothers who work at the forefront giving an evangelical witness as little flock. May God bless them.