CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Days after Dutch priest Fr. Frans van der Lugt S.J. was murdered in Syria, a close young friend recalled his saintly life, noting both his personal holiness and extraordinary advances in Christian-Muslim relations.<\/p>\n\tWael Salibi, 26, recalled how when the Christian area in Homs was taken over by rebels, 66,000 of the faithful \"left their home, and just few of them stayed there. He was the only priest, he stayed in his church.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cJust months before he died, he said \u2018I can\u2019t leave my people, I can\u2019t leave my church, I am director of this church, how can I leave them?\u2019\u201d Salibi told CNA on April 11.<\/p>\n
\tSalibi, who hails from the now-ravished city of Homs, grew up as a close friend and pupil of Fr. Frans, who was brutally killed on April 7.\u00a0 Days before his 76th birthday, an unknown gunman entered his church, beat him and shot him in the head.<\/p>\n
\tFor the past three years Syria has been embroiled in conflict which sprang up after citizens protested the rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president and leader the country's Ba'ath Party.<\/p>\n
\tSince then, the violence has morphed into a civil war which has claimed the lives of an estimated 140,000 people. There are currently 2.6 million Syrian refugees in nearby countries, most of them in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, and an additional 6.5 million Syrian people are believed to have been internally displaced by the war.<\/p>\n
\tCurrently a refugee living and studying in Rome, Salibi fled his city just a year and a half ago \u2013 following a two-week religious visit to Europe \u2013 after receiving a call from his mother telling him not to return.<\/p>\n
\tRecalling his life growing up with the priest, Salibi explained that because Fr. Frans had been living and working in Syria since 1966, his family formed close ties with the priest, who would often visit after celebrating Christmas Mass in order to wish his father a happy birthday, and was at one point the spiritual director for his sister.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis is what makes Fr. Frans special,\u201d Salibi noted, \u201cbecause he influenced thousands of people, and he remembered all people with little details, and he listened to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOn how the priest worked tirelessly for the unity amongst Christians and Muslims in the area, Salibi said that he advanced these relations through two main projects he began during his nearly 50 years of ministry in the country.<\/p>\n
\tThe first initiative of Fr. Frans was a project entitled \u201cAl-Maseer\u201d meaning \u201cmarching,\u201d Salibi continued, in which groups of 300 at a time, would come from various regions around Syria to work together and discover new parts of the country.<\/p>\n
\tConvening every 2 to 3 months, the group would usually walk together over the weekend and frequently went to little-known areas in order to discover different parts of the country, Salibi went on to say, recalling how one summer the group made a ten day trip in which they walked over 60 kilometers and slept in both churches and mosques along the way.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI know Syria and I love Syria because of him,\u201d Salibi expressed, observing how \u201cwe never felt like he wasn\u2019t Syrian. I think he\u2019s Syrian more than anyone I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOften when the group felt tired because of all the walking, they would be surprised because Fr. Frans was \u201c70 years old and he was the first one to arrive,\u201d Salibi observed, recounting how the Dutchman would always tell them \u201cilal amam,\u201d meaning \u201ckeep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe always told us\u2026it didn\u2019t just give us like, power, he also made us keep going with our lives,\u201d the young Syrain explained, emphasizing that \u201cI will never forget that word from him. He told us how to be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tReferring to the second project Fr. Frans initiated, Salibi explained that the name was \u201cAl-ard\u201d meaning \u201cthe earth\u201d or \u201cthe land,\u201d which took place in the countryside outside of Homs, and is a place where the priest would bring handicapped from all the area, both Muslim and Christian, and provide different work and activities for them to do.<\/p>\n
\tBefore working in the project, Salibi explain that \u201cI was afraid of\u201d handicapped people, but that after working in the project \u201cI felt like oh my God there is no difference, no difference between religion, no difference between handicapped people, no difference between humans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe taught me how much humility and love, and how we can find love, God, in the love of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFr. Frans also built an area of prayer for the project that was \u201cnot a church, not a mosque,\u201d but a place where all people went \u201cjust to pray,\u201d the young Syrian recounted. \u201cPeople from all Syria, and also outside of Syria, went there to relax, to find their peace, to be closer to God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t know when we (were) suffering, when we lost the road, who was walking with him, whether he was Christian or Muslim, we are just sons of God and sons of this land, Syria,\u201d Salibi went on to say, observing how \u201cthat was his target, to put Muslims and Christians together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tRecalling how when the war broke out in 2011 Fr. Frans opened the doors of his church to both Muslims and Christians, the priest\u2019s friend noted that he would give them food, saying \u201c\u2018I didn\u2019t come to Syria to help just Christians.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAnd he stayed there. And he stayed there in the ending before he died just with 24 Christians, he didn\u2019t leave them, and when he died, the Muslim people were sad more than the Christians in that neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDescribing a previous conversation Fr. van der Lugt had with another youth at the base of a famous tomb in the area, Salibi recounted how when the youth asked the priest if he wanted to be buried in Syria or in Holland, \u201cFr. Frans looked at him with a very serious look, and told him of course here in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMy friend now he understands why he looked at him in that way. It was not a joke. And that\u2019s what happened. Fr. Frans died there and they put him in his church\u2026where we used to drink coffee with him, and where he listened to thousands of people with love, with interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe changed the lives of thousands of people\u2026 he taught us the meaning of love not just with words, but with life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhen he was murdered, Salibi\u00a0 highlighted that the people \u201cdidn\u2019t think about who killed him, they thought about sadness and accepted the love because of the teaching of Fr. Frans, who taught them don\u2019t hate, don\u2019t take revenge, and death is not the ending, it\u2019s just passing to be with God. So that\u2019s what we learned from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe night before he died, Salibi revealed that the priest wrote a reflection on how we are preparing ourselves for Easter, saying that \u201c\u2019This feast is the way to pass from this to the life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201c\u2019We see the life from deep, dark hole, but the people in this dark, black hole can see this huge light. We wish this to rise up to Syria and \u2018ilal amam,\u2019 \u2018keep going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s the last thing he wrote, like he knew he would send us this message,\u201d his young friend observed.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s not important if he died in that way, by assassin (or if) he be martyr,\u201d Salibi affirmed, \u201chis life and the way he loved and spent his life is enough to make him a Saint, and he died in that way so I think he is extra-Saint.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tExplaining how everyday there are hundreds martyrs in Syria like Fr. Frans, including his own cousin who three months ago was killed outside of the village for being a Christian, Salibi explained that Fr. Frans\u2019 story \u201cgets this attention because all people loved him a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI think he wants also with his death to send this message to people, because he wrote a few months ago, \u2018we love to live. We don\u2019t love to die. We love to live. We have (the) right to live a normal life,\u2019\u201d Salibi went on to say.<\/p>\n
\tContinuing, he emphasized his belief that with his death Fr. Frans also wants to remind those \u201cwho are used to this war in Syria and everyday death\u2026 how important (it is) to try everything can do to stop this war, this tragic war. And especially in a very peaceful way,\u201d and to \u201cforgive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe don\u2019t want any war in Syria, we don\u2019t want more war,\u201d he said, \u201cwe just want to say everyone push for peace. To make this peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn the midst of the continuous conflict, Salibi revealed that he finds hope in the last thing that Fr. Frans wrote, saying that we are preparing ourselves for Easter, and that \u201cthis is a symbol of passing from death to life. The life around us (is a) very deeply dark hole, but people around us they look to the huge light coming from up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe taught us this. Always we have hope, we shouldn\u2019t say no, now Fr. Frans died and there is no hope,\u201d the Syrian observed.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNo, he gives us with his death more hope than before. Like he still supported the peaceful solution until his death, until he died, and go ahead. That\u2019s the last word he says, keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
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Vatican City, Apr 15, 2014 \/ 07:21 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Days after Dutch priest Fr. Frans van der Lugt S.J. was murdered in Syria, a close young friend recalled his saintly life, noting both his personal holiness and extraordinary advances in Christian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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