Syrian bishop: ‘Syria is at its end’ and Church ‘only reference for hope’

(PerMariam) — As Christian persecution continues in Syria and people continually lose trust in the government, a leading Catholic prelate in Syria has said that the Catholic Church is the “only point of reference for hope” in the nation.

“Jesus wants His Church to remain in Syria. And the idea of emptying Syria of Christians is certainly not the will of God.” Such were the recent words of Archbishop Jacques Mourad to Fides News Agency, the Vatican’s official news site of its Pontifical Mission Societies.

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Mourad’s comments come in light of the increasingly volatile situation in Syria, which last month saw a suicide bombing attack take place in Damascus, leaving 30 people dead at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church.

For Mourad—the 57-year-old Archbishop of the Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Homs—the role of the Catholic Church is perhaps of previously unrivaled importance in the fractured nation. “The Church is the only point of reference for hope for the entire Syrian people,” he commented. “For everyone, not just Christians. Because we are doing everything we can to support our people.”

Syria’s government is currently led by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, after having led the revolt against the Assad regime in December and the takeover of the country by his Islamist militants. Al-Sharaa fought as a member of al-Qaeda in Iraq against U.S. forces in the early 2000s, but has in recent months been lauded and diplomatically courted by global leaders as he has emerged as Syria’s new leader.

Mourad revealed that after the fall of the Assad regime, “many in our communities and parishes fell into crisis and fear. A terrible despair. I, too, visited the parishes, in every village, to encourage Christians and speak about the future.”

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Al-Sharaa has attested to forming a society tolerant of religious beliefs and for a “comprehensive” government which would represent “all Syrians, including religious and ethnic minorities.”

In December, the Papal Nuncio Cardinal Mario Zenari commented that “rebels met with the bishops in Aleppo immediately after their victory, assuring them that they would respect the various religious denominations and Christians.”

However, attacks have continued, although the government has officially decreed that they are enacted by individual agents or groups unconnected to the state.

“The government,” he told Fides, “bears direct responsibility for everything that has happened.”

Because every government is responsible for the security of the people. And I’m not just talking about the Christians. Many Sunnis, many Alawites have also been killed, many have disappeared. If a team sent by an international organization were to inspect the prisons, they would find many people who had nothing to do with the crimes of the previous regime. I think it’s fair to say that this government is persecuting the people.

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In recent weeks, a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) documented the daily reality for Christians and Muslims in Syria after the new regime took power. The report warns that “both religious freedom conditions in Syria and related U.S. foreign policy—including President Donald J. Trump’s May announcement to lift sanctions on Syria—remain subject to rapid change.”

The USCIRF report notes that “religious freedom remains under threat from a variety of actors, including loyalists to the transitional authorities, who have targeted civilians with mass sectarian attacks.” This is linked particularly to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formally identified by the U.S. as a terrorist group.

However, the state’s official disassociation from these attacks does not hold much weight for Mourad. He appeared reluctant to accept the official line about the Islamic government being separate from the anti-Christian attacks, and noted what appeared to be a significant link between the militants and the state:

They drive up in state security vehicles and use loudspeakers to call on Christians to convert. But when we question the security personnel about this behavior, they reply that these are individual initiatives. People no longer believe in this government.

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Mourad has a personal history with Islamic militants and their methods. He was captured and imprisoned for four months by the Islamic State in 2015 until he escaped. After ministering as a priest since his 1993 ordination, in 2022 the Syriac Catholic Synod of Bishops elected him to be Archbishop of Homs, an appointment confirmed by Pope Francis the next year.

Having ascended to his see at a particularly troubled time—the Syriac Catholic Church is a sui juris church in full communion with the Holy See—Mourad is not shy about drawing comparisons between the new and old government. Al-Sharaa and Assad both “have no respect for the Syrian people and their history,” he said, adding:

Every time I hear about “protecting” Christians, I feel like we’re being accused, that we’re being threatened. These are words that don’t serve to show benevolence; they burden us. I must say that this government is doing the same things the Assad regime did against the population. Both regimes, the Assad regime and the current one, have no respect for the Syrian people and their history.

He presented a distressing image of the reality on the ground:

Syria as a country is at its end. We keep repeating that it is the first country in the world and that Damascus and Aleppo are the oldest cities in the world, but that means nothing today. It is at its end; most people live below the poverty line; we are massacred and humiliated, and we are tired. We don’t have the strength to reclaim our dignity ourselves. If there is no sincere political support for the people and not for the government, we are at our end.

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In May, Pope Leo XIV urged Christians in the Middle East to remain in their homeland as the number of Christians in the region has suffered a significant decline, as attested to by numerous reports and research groups.

“Syria as a country is at its end” – Abp. Mourad.

The Christian population of Iraq and Syria has “shrunk by somewhere between 75% to 85% in the past 20 years, and Palestine’s Christian community is finding itself at threat, highlighted by Gaza’s Christians suffering near extinction in the latest Israeli-Palestinian war,” persecution.org wrote last year.

The plight of Christians in Syria remains as crucial as ever.

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