PRO ORIENTE youth workshops start in “season 2025”

The Middle East youth workshops of the PRO ORIENTE foundation, which began in 2022, will continue in 2025. The first ecumenical workshop of this year took place in the Iraqi capital Bagdad from January 30 to February 1. The young people, who are members of different churches, reflected on the political, economic, social and ecclesial situation in their home countries and developed future scenarios for church and society. The workshops take place in cooperation with the group “We Choose Abundant Life”.

The young adults – most of whom came from Bagdad, but some also from northern Iraq – discussed issues such as how to strengthen Christian witness in Iraq. Another focus was on dealing with trauma and on spiritual counseling and support.

Viola Raheb, project manager on the part of the PRO ORIENTE Foundation, gave an extremely positive summary: “This workshop was one of the most intensive and moving so far. The young people, who have experienced violence and war at a young age and carry many scars with them, were now able to talk about these experiences for the first time and were strengthened by community, spiritual support and prayer.”

The young adults are the present and the future of Christian life and commitment in Iraq. “We are called to accompany and strengthen them on their journey of faith and life,” said Raheb. PRO ORIENTE intends to continue along this path in the future. She added: “We very much hope that we will continue to receive support from others in doing so.”

A total of 25 young people from 10 different churches took part in the workshop. For the vast majority, it was the first ecumenical encounter, as Raheb emphasized. One participant noted: “In these three days, there was room for both sorrow and joy, prayer and meditation. We learned from each other and saw that ecumenism is not just an idea, but a way of life lived in love and unity.”

According to another participant, the workshop succeeded in bringing Christian youth together, as was the objective. “Historical barriers were overcome.” The shared experiences are of great value and will contribute significantly to unity among young people, said a third participant: “Our paths may separate, but the spirit that brought us together remains, and the memory makes us long to meet again.”

In addition to Viola Raheb, the workshops were led by the Lebanese priest and theologian Prof. Gabriel Hachem, the Maronite priest and director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Lebanon, Rouphael Zgheib, and the Lebanese nun Sr. Emiline Tannous from the Middle East Council of Churches. All three are members of the “We Choose Abundant Life” group. The leadership team also included the Iraqi Dominican Father Amir Jaje, in whose monastery in Bagdad the workshop also took place. Viola Raheb was very grateful for the hospitality and the great substantive and logistical support.

Before the workshop began, the management team and Raheb visited several bishops of the Latin, Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Assyrian Churches of the East in Bagdad. Raheb said that the meeting with Bishop Mor Severius Jamil Hawa was particularly memorable. The bishop was still able to recall his visit to PRO ORIENTE in Vienna some 30 years ago and his meeting with Cardinal Franz König at the time. The trust in the work of PRO ORIENTE that had been established even then was also the reason why the bishop had encouraged the young people of his church to take part in the workshop.

The visit to the Syrian Catholic Sayidat-al-Nejat Cathedral in Bagdad, which the team visited together with the young people, was also deeply moving. IS terrorists had murdered 47 people in this church on October 31, 2010.

On the fringes of the workshop, Prof. Hachem gave a lecture on “Christians in the Middle East in the face of major changes” at the Dominican Academy for Human Sciences in Bagdad. More than 100 people, both Christian and Muslim, were interested in attending.

On the last day of the workshop, a delegation from the German Bishops' Conference, headed by Archbishop Udo Bentz of Paderborn, who was in Bagdad for a few days as part of a solidarity visit, attended the workshop. In a video shared on Facebook, Bentz said: “One saying really stuck with me: The best way to predict the future is to shape it. I was impressed by the drive and courage of these young people.” Archbishop Bentz and his former diocese of Mainz have supported the PRO ORIENTE initiative financially in recent years, for which the foundation is very grateful.