The Thorny Question of the Orient (`2013) JPPM Volume I pages 440-443. Why did Assumption ever got to interest herself with the Christian Orient? What are the historical and spiritual roots of this specific apostolate? What are its current attachés? Nothing predisposed particularly Fr. d’Alzon nor the 1st Assumption to discover the Christians of the Orient, nor its origins, nor its culture, nor its language, nor its formation. But one finds oneself all of a sudden talking about the Christians of the East with the knowledge of a new religious congregation. The Polish Resurrectionists of the exile, founded in Paris in 1836, frequented by Mere Marie Eugenie de Jesus in Paris in the 1849’s. Fr. d’Alzon appreciated them to the point of wanting to merge his institute with theirs (1856-1858) .but very soon one noticed the impasse, even of an apostolic rivalry of influence when it came to the point of going on the apostolic terrain of the Orient in 1862. Poland remained until today a foreign land for Assumption! 1854-1859 We must recall the reality of the Orient in Political Europe of the time having at the point of the beginning the Crimean War! The goal is to limit the ambitions of Russia and Austria. And to reform Turkey that sick man of Europe, and continue the liberation of peoples nationally and religiously which will go on for the rest of the century. - Serbia: The autonomy of Serbia in 1812. - Greece, 1830 After a terrible war of independence which started in 1821. Romania: 1854-1958. A struggle for autonomy which progressively becomes a struggle for independence - Bulgaria:1878, in full flourish of independence in 1877-1887. - Cyprus: 1878 under British Administration, to take it away from the rivality between Greece and Turkey. - Albania 1912. But this rosary of dates which we could finger is but a visual representation of the tenacious rivalries which revolved around Thracian reality (Balkan wars 191l-1913) , in Macedonia, in Austria in 1908. The Balkans were the ‘explosives or sparks of Europe’, and provoked the parceling off of the world of 1914. As to Palestine, Syria-Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, all of these were under the authority of the Ottoman Empire and are but waiting for an occasion to emancipate themselves. The historical date of 1918 is an indisputable reference on the political and military field which upsets and reorganizes this entire unit. On the Christian field, the effervescence of the Near East brings about one positive result: the Christians of the Orient are better well known and better monied to especially with the Work of the Orient in Paris 1856 with Lavigerie. 1860 A big event brings the people to its feet: the announcement of the massacre of 30,000 Maronites of Lebanon Syria. Radical Muslims called Druses attack. The Turkish Ottoman Empire, seemingly in charge cannot establish order and diplomacy helps the process The France of Napoleon III intervenes and calls for tits rights as a protective power of minority Catholics. in the Ottoman Empire since the XVI Century.. Fr. d’Alzon accepts to educate 7-8 Maronites in his College of Nimes, hoping to make of them future religious and wanting to seize an opportunity for an implantation in Jerusalem(Cenacle for the AA’s and the Tomb of the BVM for the RA’s).A lot of suffering in the end before the upcoming realities. For the AA’s there will be no foundation in Jerusalem, Notre Dame de France being only 1887 when the great pilgrimages of N.D.S, (Notre Dame du Salut – Our Lady of Salvation ) were in full swing. But there will be a mission of the Assumptionist Fathers. Holland went to Charfe (1950-1958) to take charge of the Syrian Catholic Seminary. This pastoral initiative will leave traces of ecumenism with the Institute for the Study of Christian Orientalism (I.E.C.O.) of Nijmegen and the publication of a specialized review: Het Christelijk Oosten (The Christian Orient) when we celebrated the 50th anniversary in 1998 These stepping stones permit us to understand the emotional and spiritual choc which Fr d’Alzon endured when he heard Pius IX say to an audience of public pilgrims from Nimes on St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday the 3rd of June 1862 ‘I bless your works of the Orient and the Occident,” when Fr. d’Alzon had come to Rome to get permission to create a Maronite Seminary somewhere between Beyrouth and Jerusalem! Curial Cardinals – all Vatican corridor mongers ) Monsignors Simoni and Barnabo, Talbot, Howard, Lavigerie , step on each other to have Fr. d’Alzon understand the will of Pius the IX is that he should turn Assumption towards the Bulgarians . The other cause of the Union of 1860 and the fumbling of the consecration of Msgr. Sokolski, who was lost on a Russian boat on the Black Sea. We see that from the start this adventure is embroglioed! The Pope receives in private audience Fr.d’Alzon on Friday the 6th of June 1862.: yes for a seminary in the Orient, but for the Bulgarians It is normal therefore to go prudently with the Resurrectionists. And for good measure, why not attack the whole Photian schism and put Assumption on this track under the direction of Msgr. Brunoni in Constantinople, the Vicar Apostolic who has enormous debts, whose realizes that the inheritance of Fr. d’Alzon could possibly pleasantly remedy. We see him in action: high diplomacy and ambitious apostolic zeal can also have their very ordinary sides! D’Alzon comes to Nimes on the 19th of June. He does his traditional speech at the giving out of the prizes on the Work of the Bulgarians. The 1st of August he gathers together as foreseen the 5th General Chapter which opens on the 3rd of September. Fr. Galabert volunteers for this mysterious Constantinople. He leaves Nimes the 30th of November for Marseille and Constantinople via |Rome ( from the 4th of December to the 14th thereof) and lodges at the Lazarists of Galata and discovers at times with amusement and at times with pain the realities of the Orient which is not as dreamed of. This Orient which goes from Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire. What to do? With whom? With what means? And with which support? To see the issues more clearly, Fr. D’Alzon goes to Constantinople the next year; he leaves with Louis Guizard on the 14th of February, goes to Athens on the 18th of February where he visits a snowy Acropolis. The 21st of February he has gained Constantinople, terra firma. Encounters and contacts link each other up. Msgr. Brunoni, delegates of the Bulgarian Union, visits of Chalcedonia, visit to and preaching to the Sisters of Zion and to the Daughters of Charity. By necessity there isn’t enough time and he renounces to his trip to Jerusalem and leaves Constantinople on the 16th of April and arrives in Rome on the 22nd of April, where he writes a report to the intention of Pius IX and the Propaganda, but which is not understood. On the 3rd of May he leaves Rome and arrives in Nimes on the 5th of May. On site Fr. Galabert visits Bulgaria (many unknown units: the plain of Sophia, the plain of’ Roumalia with the valley of Maritza. In the North the plain of the Danube River, Dobroudja and Thrace. There are two tall Rocky Mountains: the Balkans and the Rhodope. His conclusion is clear: let us start with a small school in Philippopolis (Plovdiv). The school of Saint Andre, January 1864 and let us start on a modest way. But the ambition of the Assumptionists would be to found in Constantinople (Adrianople 1867, Samboul Koum Kapou 182l; from 1883 to 1914: foundation often in tandem with the OA’s Bursa, Phanaraki, Izmit, Eiskisehir, Konya, Gallipoli, Kadi Koy 1895, Zonguldak 1896, /Kayseri 1903, Peramos1904, Neveshir 1908, Pendik 1912.) All of this is ruined by the wars of the Balkans 1911-1913 followed by the first worldwide conflict of 1914-1918. To put the finishing touches on the disaster, in 1924 is the disastrous conflict between Greece and turkey which was without mercy. In 2,000 Assumption quit Ankara ( a place which was opened in `1926) The only thing remaining is that little flock in Istanbul Kadi Koy, opened ion 895v and whose adventure has benn rich with the publication of the Echos d’Orient (IFEB) whi have develop d a knowledge of Byzantium ( the tradition of the Byzantines) unequaled in all of history. Since 1865. Thanks to the foundation of the Oblates. Indispensable helpers in Bulgaria-Turkey; they have progressed: Philippoli–Plovdiv in 1863; Sofia (1881-1882) Yambol (1889 -) Mostrali (1891), Varna (1897-1934) Sliven (1904) . All of a sudden a great realization was made in the beginning of the College St. Augustine on the Black Sea , the lycée St. Augustine, from 1884-1948) which the historian Alain Lafleury has recalled the history recently. It was the school in which we learned the byzantine-slave culture and the Rite of the Slaves. Other significant foundations and wanted, that of the Russian Mission in 1903, in the heart of the Slave- Orthodoxy. There also a rosary of temporary posts with Saint-Petersbourg (1903-1940) Kiev (1907-1910) Makievka (1907-1929) Vilna (1900-1908) Odessa (1905-1920) Moscow (1926St. Louis …1934) but with an eye to a project of ecumenism of the future. After the First World War. There was a new drawing of the map of Europe for Europe had changed and the call of the times: Assumption starts in Romania (1923) in Yugoslavia (1925) ion Greece (1934) , in Tunesia (1936) in Algeria (1949) and in Lebanon (1950), without a clear and programmed plan of action. One cannot bring to a conclusion these traits of history a bit pell mell, but what stays is a hope always open larger than human horizons without no other unity than the missionary generosity of the takers; a better Assumptionist insertion in the International scene; challenges which are contemporary and have for name: ecumenism, inter religious dialogue, friendship between OA-AA.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:37:43 +0000
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