Above, Sister Elena Bolognesi, 58 years old. In 1991 she left journalism to join, the first woman ever, the interreligious community founded by Father Dall’Oglio in Syria
His is one of the 30 exclusive interviews in the documentary Paolo Dall’Ogliothe Jesuit kidnapped by ISIS and never found again. For the Ambrosiano Center he translated his volume from Arabic My will and took care of the second, I always dialogue with everyone, recently released.
The broadcast of the documentary, on November 22nd at 4pm on Rai 3, will be accompanied by two screenings: on November 17th at 10.30 am at the Adriano cinema, in Rome, and on the 19th at 8.30 pm at the Palestrina cinema, in the Milanese capital. «In Milan, before leaving for Syria, I had started to study classical Arabic, but in fact I learned it in the desert, thanks to Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, who spoke it better than the Arabs and expressed himself in the strangest dialects because the people there do not use the language of the Koran. I also speak Syrian-Lebanese. When I returned, I graduated in Arabic and Hebrew.”
She is Elena Bolognesithe first woman to enter Deir Mar Musa, the monastic community founded in the Syrian desert by Paolo dall’Oglio, the Jesuit who for thirty years dedicated himself to dialogue between Christians and Muslims, kidnapped by ISIS in Raqqa in 2013. Only woman with two men: the other was father Jacques Mourad, today archbishop of Homs. «I made the decision at 25, my mother got ill and I was able to leave only two years later, in ’93. I gave up everything, including a secure contract as a journalist.”
Sister Elena, today in the Sisters of the Lord community in Milan, consecrated herself in the desert. «My vocational journey, however, had begun before, with the Samuele Group of Cardinal Martini, who sent a letter of presentation to the apostolic nuncio of Damascus and the bishop of Homs which had a certain weight, because at the beginning the community was not thought mixed. Then Syrian girls arrived.”
There is magic in his story. «The monastery is built on a rock spur: you can only get there on foot, from behind the mountain. In front, suddenly, the desert opens up, always the same and always different, fascinating because it allows you to rediscover the essentiality of the relationship with God. It is not isolation, but a void filled by faith.”
Father Paolo’s courage has always struck herthat becoming everything to everyone, as Saint Paul taught, which he made current. «He rebuilt the ruined monastery stone by stone, with the help of groups of young people. For him it made no difference whether a pastor or the American ambassador came. The meaning was to welcome without ever questioning one’s faith, as Cardinal Martini had also supported in his speech of ’90 We and Islam. The Syrian authorities expelled him because he was looking not only for a peaceful solution, but also for reconciliation between the different souls of Syria.”
In Jerusalem, for Father Paolo, the three Abrahamic faiths should have coexisted. «This idea developed since the partition proposal of ’47, with which the UN supported the creation of two states, Israel and Palestine, with Jerusalem having international status under the control of the United Nations. But, perhaps, more than in Jerusalem, it is in Hebron, in Palestine, where Abraham’s tomb is, that we understand the tension of that land. It hurt him that the tomb of Abraham, father of all, Christians, Jews and Muslims, was violated like this.”
Of what is happening in the Middle East, Sister Elena says: «Netanyahu has progressively moved to the right to maintain power, he made an agreement with the Israelis who theorize the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Hamas uses its own people as cannon fodder and he has an easy game because he finds a generation of desperate young people. I was in Gaza twenty years ago and I have never seen such a terrible place, an open-air prison. If you are born in Gaza, you grow up and die there, in 40 by 12 kilometers.
The drama of the Palestinians is the silence of the Westerners and primarily of the Arab countries. Nobody goes against Israel by reporting violations, because they have always done business with Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself, but the Palestinians also have the right to be a people, with land, borders and resources. In Bethlehem, Israel controls the water wells. We should first-hand experience before judging, knowing the reasons and suffering of the other: as Father Paolo taught all his life.”
