Amman – In the historical life of the Churches in the Middle East, there has always been a valuable role carried out by Christian schools especially in the present scenario ravaged by sectarian conflict.
This was strongly advocated by Archbishop Maroun Lahham, Patriarchal Vicar for Jordan of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, during his intervention at the conference for the training of Catholic school head masters being held in Amman. “If there is still a hope to imagine a different future, out of the bloody excesses of sectarianism and terrorism”, said Archbishop Lahham to Agenzia Fides, “this possibility inevitably comes from school and education, and therefore also involves Christian schools. Only good teachers can inspire a love of freedom, the principles of citizenship and openness towards Others in their students, removing them from the pressure and brainwashing practiced by all forms of fundamentalism and sectarianism. Our schools – added the Archbishop – have always been fantastic places of dialogue between Christians and Muslims: they have always formed good Christians and good Muslims, open to dialogue simply because they had studied together. This feature is ev en more important in the current context of the Middle East, where it is essential to increase places that educate boys and girls to coexistence, peace and acceptance of others, to be considered as a brother, even if he/she is different from me, and not as an enemy to be eliminated”.
Source: Fides News
