This promise was made before the Pope and a million people at the end of the World Meeting in Philadelphia: The Gospel of Luke, given by the Pope to families from the five continents, would also reach the war-affected Syrian families in Damascus, represented at that moment by Mr. and Mrs. Sargi together with their three children. This symbolic gesture was immediately associated with a fundraiser to support them during the hard, incipient winter.
Delivering both the Gospel of Luke in Arabic and the funds that have been raise was therefore at the heart of the visit of Archbishop Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council, in Syria on November 15th. During the celebration presided over by Patriarch Laham III in the Melkite cathedral, full of families and children, Msgr. Paglia exhorted and encouraged the families present, with these words:
"I bring you the Pope's medicine that heals the heart, makes us strong, enables us to rebuild a country: The Gospel of Luke. It is the Gospel of mercy, which is moved at the sight of so many children who are suffering and of the dramas of young people. It is the gospel that comforts the elderly who see their country in such a difficult time. This small book is a little light: it makes it possible to see in the dark night and enflames hope for peace. We place this gospel in your hands: receive it in your heart. You are the hope of a more beautiful Syria!"
Several meetings were held in which Syria's beautiful face appeared: nuns working in hospitals, the Salesians who daily gather hundreds of children in the city's schools and oratories, volunteers who visit the families in the poor neighborhoods every day, and Christians engaged in various fields of the country's church and social life. Archbishop Paglia, addressing himself directly to the latter, at a meeting organized by Patriarch Laham and the Nuncio Msgr. Zenari on "Family and Society Today," said:
"The family of God has been entrusted with the care of creation and of the generations. Man and woman share the responsibility for the world and society. Especially Christian families cannot remain closed within themselves; they have to go out to make the world, even Syria, more humane. We need to reflect together, to dream together, to plan the future of our children, and Christians are indispensable for doing this. Without Christians, Syria and the Middle East die. [...] Christians can never be fundamentalists. Our culture brings tolerance and civilization. For all! We are not strong because we have big armies, but thanks to the invincible and intelligent love of Jesus."
The words became more modest and intimate in the meetings with the people directly affected by the tragedy of the war: the family where a bomb killed two children, aged 10 and 3, who were playing on the balcony, and has now decided to have another baby; boys wounded by a mortar under their school bus (bombs are deliberately launched on the city of Damascus when the children are leaving the schools). This tragic reality was confirmed in numbers and lectures during the meeting held with the heads of the UNICEF delegation that is working in Syria: four women concerned and moved by what they see every day and try to contain.
The trip was also an opportunity for a series of short meetings with several local church authorities, including the Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Boutros Rai, during the visit to Lebanon, and the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Damascus, His Holiness Ignatius Aphrem II.
