In this year, a number of bishops were appointed in the Holy Land and the Arab region, foremost of which being the appointment of the 10th patriarch of the Latin Church in Jerusalem, namely Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, after the patriarchal seat had been vacant for four years. Among the other good news is Pope Francis’ announcement of his imminent visit to fraternal Iraq in March 2021, and it is hoped that this visit will inspire hope among all Iraqis.
The year 2020 started as has been the case every year. Conferences and meetings were held in the first two months of last year. The first event was at the Baptism Site of Lord Jesus Christ by a meeting of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ben Al-Hussein with the extended Jordanian family, in the presence of a large number of Christian figures in Jordan.
Preparations were under way for several activities and conferences that were to be held, but they did not see the light of the day. With the advent of March, something–which was not taken into account–happened! Major cities of the world were in lockdown, places of worship including churches, mosques and others were closed in various parts of the world. The most impressive event in the world was the prayer that Pope Francis performed on March 27, 2020, when he prayed alone in Saint Peter’s Square for the healing of mankind, in which he said, “We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other.”
People were deprived from performing religious rites, especially on the Easter holiday, which was without any attendance. Among the unusual images that history will remember is that places of worship were closed for feast prayers, including Easter, Ramadan, Adha and Christmas which coincided on the day of lockdown in cities around the world. These images are indelible indicating that the pandemic affected the places of worship and caused their closure in order to preserve social distancing, which has become a major feature of preserving people’s health.
This year was marked by live-streaming religious rites on social media sites or sometimes on local television channels. This practice has two aspects. The first aspect is the expression of the positivity of the media outlets that can convey positive matters. There have been times of passive views posted on social media, with comments sometimes failing to rise to the sublime live-streamed religious event. As for the other aspect, it implied giving families the opportunity to pray together, and we recall the slogan launched by late Latin Patriarch Jacob Peltretti (1970-1987) in the 1970s: “The family that prays together stays together.” This was a reason for developing the bonds of family relations within the same household, between the husbands and wives, as well as between the parents and their children. The Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Jordan and its affiliated abouns.org websites have had a prominent presence by live-streaming religious rites during and after the lockdowns which gave hope to many people living in Jordan and abroad.
This year, the religious discourse aimed at encouraging people who were in fear and confusion. There is definitely fear, anxiety, doubts, hesitation, and often enquiries about the significance of the pain and the pandemic, but the religious discourse was encouraging as it included quotes from the Holy Bible designed to alleviate the current ordeal. Furthermore, there was great sorrow among families when one of their members passes away with funerals confined to a limited number of people and families are not allowed sometimes to take the last look on their dead relatives which of course, causes great grief among several families. That is why the religious discourse offers consolation based on faith, patience, and accepting the Cross of Lord Jesus with consideration of eternal life.
Globally, several virtual seminars and events were held including the seventh annual G20 Interfaith Forum which convened in Riyadh, His Majesty King Abdullah’s meeting with the heads of churches in Jordan and Palestine, in addition to Pope Francis’ launching of the Global Compact on Education in November 2020 which is a pact designed to encourage change on a global scale, so that education may become a creator of fraternity, peace, and justice.
In this year, a number of bishops were appointed in the Holy Land and the Arab region, foremost of which being the appointment of the 10th patriarch of the Latin Church in Jerusalem, namely Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, after the patriarchal seat had been vacant for four years. Among the other good news is Pope Francis’ announcement of his imminent visit to fraternal Iraq in March 2021, and it is hoped that this visit will inspire hope among all Iraqis.
With the end of this year, we look with optimism and hope, and pray with all those in charge of the people’s health, spiritual, political, and social interests so that 2021 will be a year of healing, and a year of fair distribution of the vaccine to the countries of the world without exception. This is an impression of human solidarity in this new year. May God preserve the extended human family; may God preserve the entire humanity; and may God always lead people to the paths of searching for the best ways to defend human health and the sacred dignity.
Happy New Year 2021
By: Fr. Dr. Rif’at Bader
Source: en.abouna.org
