The rededication of the newly restored “Cathedral of the Assumption” for the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Aleppo, Syria

Sunday September 9. 2018

Excerpts of the homely

of Mar Ignatius Youssef III Younan

Patriarch of Antioch for Syriac Catholic Church

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    With the Psalmist we are called to sing:

    “I rejoiced with those who said to me:
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord”.

    I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to the His Eminence Mario Cardinal Zenari, the Papal Nuncio, to all Bishops and clergy of sister Churches, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, as well to the representatives of civil authorities of this town…

    We are gathered today to sing thanks and praise to the Lord who gave us this wonderful gift to be able to repair this cathedral of “Our Lady of the Assumption”, in order to recuperate its beauty of the past. We are so delighted to come once again and pray with you, in this cathedral so dear to you. For many years this house of God suffered a lot of devastation, being at the demarcation line with terrorists. It is now restored for worship, a sign of hope and victory of the good on the evil that destroyed so many churches and mosques in this beloved city, Aleppo. A city once recognized to be the most important center in Syria, for many Christian communities since many centuries.

    We should first thank God Almighty that helped you, beloved brothers and sisters, under the leadership of our brother-Archbishop Mar Dyonisius Antoine Chahda, to undertake the hard and costly works of repairing this wonderful Cathedral built in the 1970’s. Our heartfelt thanks would go to all generous benefactors from within the Archdiocese and from Catholic Organizations, as well from the government of Hungary. We owe to our Catholic brothers and sisters from around the world, a lot of appreciation and gratitude for the charitable and unconditional solidarity toward us and all Christians of the Middle East, most particularly in the two beleaguered countries of Syria and Iraq.

    During the horrendous siege at the hands of criminals that lasted four years, this second largest and prosperous city of Syria, was deprived of basic necessities. You were to lack the water, food, fuel and electricity. All this happened at the eyes of the “civilized” world, whose politicians and Media used instead to lament the sort of the so called “East-Aleppo”, the section controlled by the Islamist terrorists. You and the hundreds of thousands of civilians under the ruling of the legitimate Syrian government were forgotten, abandoned even manipulated by those opportunistic geo-politicians of our present time. We kept telling the world: did the powerful of our world liberate Mosul, Iraq, with flowers! If not, why then did they hammer you, you the innocent civilians of Aleppo, with their vindictive hatred?   

    Today we commemorate the Feast of the Nativity of Virgin Mary. This feast day is so dear to our Syriac Catholic Church because one hundred years ago, it was the liberation day of our Patriarch and Cardinal Mar Ignatius Gabriel Tappouni. This confessor of the faith was put in prison in Aleppo and attributed his salvation to the intercession of Mary “Yoldat Aloho” the Mother of God.

    From the Gospel of Matthew ( 12:50) we just heard what Jesus said: ” For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.” We, who kept the faith in the suffering Lord, doing the will of His Father, while enduring all kinds of trials, like our forefathers and foremothers in the past centuries, owe to be comforted and promised to be called brothers, sisters and mother of the Savior Himself.

    To our Heavenly Mother, let us beseech that she intercede with Her Son to grant this wonderful city of Aleppo and all Syria our beloved country, the neighboring Iraq and Lebanon, as well as the whole Middle East, a true peace and unshakable security based on justice for all. Let us ask her that she protect and guide all inhabitants of Aleppo of whatever religion, ethnic and political denomination they belong to. May she intercede to hasten the return of those who have left us and crossed seas and oceans. May those uprooted and exiled Christians earnestly consider to make a return, in order to contribute with you the courageous remnants, in rebuilding their devastated country in Love, Truth and freedom, amen.