Focolare Movement

Spirituality of unity lived in Caritas Jordan

Sep 26, 2013

One million and 300,000 Syrian refugees arrived in Jordan in the last two years. In welcoming these people, among many other organizations, there is Caritas Jordan in the frontline, where many members of the Focolare Movement are working.

http://vimeo.com/75469803

«Caritas Jordan is an entity affiliated to the Catholic Church headed by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It has been in Jordan for 45 years and is part of Caritas International.» These are the words of the director, Wael Suleiman. He continues: «Caritas Jordan has responded to the appeal of the Church to take care of the Syrian refugees. We have recorded 1 million and 300 thousand Syrians who have entered Jordan, including 130,000 registered to Caritas. We provide them with medical care, educational services and humanitarian aid. It certainly is difficult for Jordan to welcome such a large number of refugees with the few resources of the country: water, petroleum, and all the economic problems. But Jordan does not want to close the doors. The King has ordered that the borders remain open to serve our Syrian brothers and sisters. At this moment we all try to live solidarity.»

Suhad Zarafili is the administrator of the projects for Caritas Jordan: «One of our programs – she explains – is the volunteer program: we have around 30 committees, with more than one thousand volunteers, Christians and Muslims. They were the ones who started doing the field visit to find the needy Syrian refugees in all our areas.»

Carole is one of the volunteers. «I am very happy – she shares – that God has given me the opportunity to work with Caritas and to help the Syrians. I too am a Syrian so in a certain way I understand better what they feel, it’s a mutual feeling. They have a lot of sufferings, they need many things: the association embraces them and tries to give them all the possible aid, until our God will solve the situation.»

«I belong to the Focolare Movement – continues Director Wael Suleiman – and this spirituality, lived by so many here at Caritas, helps us to go out into the world, outside our small circle where we live and work, so as to love everyone more. Living the spirituality of unity, we have now formed a “cell” within the Caritas, which has helped all this progress so that those who come here may experience not only assistance, but the spirit and the life behind this aid.»

___

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Newsletter

Thought of the day

Related post

What is the point of war?

What is the point of war?

At this time when the world is torn apart by brutal conflicts, we share an excerpt from the famous book written by Igino Giordani in 1953 and republished in 2003: The uselessness of war. “If you want peace, prepare peace”: the political teaching that Giordani offers us in this volume can be summarized in this aphorism. Peace is the result of a plan: a plan of fraternity between peoples, of solidarity with the weakest, of mutual respect. Thus a more just world is built, this is how war is set aside as a barbaric practice belonging to the dark phase of the history of mankind.

Don Foresi: the years of work for the incarnation of the charism

Don Foresi: the years of work for the incarnation of the charism

Ten years ago, on 14th June 2015, the theologian Don Pasquale Foresi (1929-2015), whom Chiara Lubich considered a co-founder of the Movement, died. He was the first focolarino priest and the first Co-President of the Focolare. A few months ago, the second volume of Foresi’s biography, written by Michele Zanzucchi, was published. We spoke about it with Prof. Marco Luppi, researcher in Contemporary History at the Sophia University Institute in Loppiano (Italy).