Christians in Syria: “Spiritual Desertification” in the Cradle of Christianity (2/2)

In a first article examining the situation of Middle Eastern Christians, we outlined the demographic and social reality facing Syria’s Christian communities – one that was bleak in every respect. This second installment explores the spiritual, cultural, and historical stakes involved.

Commenting on a report by L’Œuvre d’Orient on Syria’s Christian communities, completed in the summer of 2025 (see previous article), Bishop Hugues de Woillemont, the organization’s director, underscored the vital role Christian associative and charitable institutions continue to play across Syrian society, notably in the fields of reconciliation, women's empowerment, and education.

Returning to the report, he states: “Religious and ethnic pluralism is one of Syria’s greatest assets. However, after half a century of dictatorship and fourteen years of war – compounded by sectarian violence in the post-Assad period – it is clear that this religious and ethnic diversity has been considerably weakened and threatened in Syria.”

“Moreover, the crucial need to protect minorities in order to ensure stability and prevent conflict has been highlighted in numerous UN reports,” Bishop Woillemont noted. “Yet current European and international aid and protection mechanisms clearly do not take sufficient account of the vulnerability and fragility of this ecosystem.”

“We are calling in particular,” the director of L’Œuvre d’Orient said, “for the creation of a fund dedicated to ethnic and religious diversity, along with a national platform for intercommunal dialogue. These national and international instruments could be supported by various United Nations and European Union agencies. Far from fostering sectarianism, such initiatives would help support a political transition and anchor these minorities within the societies in which they live – thereby safeguarding national stability while strengthening respect for human rights for all.”

Diversity and Cultural Memory

“This issue concerns the balance, diversity and cultural memory of the Middle East,” the director of the NGO continued. “It also calls Europe’s historical responsibility into question. The presence of these communities is a guarantee of pluralism and democracy. Without substantial support, schools close, young people emigrate, families scatter, and the religious mosaic collapses. An International Day would help make a silent crisis visible, provide concrete support to educational and healthcare institutions, and rebuild bridges between East and West.”

For Vincent Gelot, the NGO’s representative in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, the decline in the number of Christians is not an ordinary demographic fact but “a historical and cultural rupture of theological magnitude.”

In other words, it reflects the very presence of God in history. Using an expression from Pope Benedict XVI, it amounts to a “spiritual desertification” of the cradle of Christianity – a replacement of one truth about the human person with another. Yet the disappearance of Jesus at the societal level is not a neutral development. It marks the fading of the particular way in which God loved the world in Christ, and of the understanding of humanity imparted by that God – indeed, of an entire anthropology. In many respects, it is the Eastern counterpart to the “death of God” in the West: the irreparable loss of a truth about the human person that no other system of thought can replace.

Christian religious authorities have been particularly attentive to the threat to pluralism. “The diversity of religions and ethnic groups has always existed in Syria; we cannot imagine a nation that does not resemble our own,” said Jacques Mourad, the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Homs. “Syrians have never been attached to such a traditional form of Islam,” the archbishop added, reflecting on the impact of the rise to power of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. In his view, the social and cultural climate in which Christians had lived for decades has been profoundly altered.

Coming Back Down to Earth

“Let’s come back down to earth: €18 million for a thousand projects is not much,” Vincent Gelot stressed. “Today, aid depends almost exclusively on private Western donors through the organizations grouped within the ROACO*, and that is clearly insufficient.”

“It is high time for the international community to assume its responsibilities and take concrete action on behalf of the ethnic and religious communities in this region, whose very existence is now at stake. Without substantial support, the religious mosaic will collapse. The presence of these communities is a guarantee of pluralism and democracy for our world. An International Day would bring visibility to a silent crisis, provide tangible support to educational and healthcare institutions, and rebuild bridges between East and West. We are calling for immediate mobilization – not to preserve a frozen past, but to keep alive a presence that has contributed to the balance of the Middle East for two millennia.”

“These Christian communities are irreplaceable witnesses to the Christianity of the early Church,” Gelot emphasized. “The holy places are here: Jesus and his Apostles walked this land; Tyre and Sidon, now in Lebanon, are mentioned in the Gospels; Saint Paul was converted on the road to Damascus; Saint Peter went to Antioch; and Jordan is home to the site where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Yet we are seeing Christian communities in these regions pack up and leave. Leaving is unacceptable. Of course, the departure of Christians does not call Christ’s Resurrection into question, but is it not already a theological wound for these communities to lose access to the holy sites? Moreover, their departure is not only a loss for them; it is also a loss for us in the West, because part of our roots, our civilization, our cultural and religious heritage comes from here. It is also a loss for Muslims. The countries of the Middle East must be helped to preserve their mosaic.”

Anchoring Minorities

“Accordingly,” Vincent Gelot emphasized, “L’Œuvre d’Orient is calling for the swift establishment of mechanisms to support reconciliation and a form of justice adapted for all Syrians. It also recommends the creation of international mechanisms and funding instruments to ensure inclusive reconstruction, along with sustained mobilization by the international community to promote ethnic and religious diversity in Syria.”

Gelot concluded: “Far from encouraging sectarianism, such initiatives would help support a political transition and anchor these minorities within the societies in which they live, thereby safeguarding national stability while strengthening respect for human rights for all.”

* ROACO: Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (including Aid to the Church in Need, Misereor, the Pontifical Mission, and L’Œuvre d’Orient).

Read on the same theme:

“Spiritual Desertification” in Syria: A Dire Reality (1/2)