Presentation of JPIC to Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land (2014)

Talking about Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (in short JPIC) is not simple. Some friars think that it is about politics. Others think that it will enforce friars to do some specific things as a moral obligation, which doesn’t give nice feelings. Some friars think that is has to do with Muslims or the conflict here in the Middle East. Friars are here to serve the Custody on the Holy Sites and not to deal with all kinds of problems.

It is easy to skip this issue of JPIC in spite of an official policy of the Order and of the Church, alleging that it is not our core business.

I have been tasked by the Custos and his Council to promote JPIC but I don’t like to let you swallow something against your will. That is not a way to promote peace. The best way seems to me is to tell you how JPIC affected my life and how I have dealt with this issue. But I warn you! my stories could disturb you and surprise you.

In the summer of 2011, a 28-year-old man told me that he likes to live like me. Maybe you think: Ah! a possible candidate for the Order. I have to disappoint you. He is not a candidate for our Order. I can very easily convince you. This man had been born in Tehran. His roots are Shia Islam. Nevertheless, he likes to live like me. How to understand this? What is his relationship with me?

I met him for the first time, when he became just 14 years old. He was in trouble. The help organisations didn’t function well for him and he came into a crisis-intervention centre, where I was working as a volunteer. It was just the time of the novena to Saint Anthony; so I made a prayer for him that there would be found a family, where he could be raised up further. Finally, the Lord referred him to me and I had to obey. It happened in the following way: His problems continued and finally I was asked if he could live temporarily in our monastery. I had this possibility prepared with my community and they agreed for a limited time, 4 months and a half. Then the renovation of our monastery should start and he could not stay any longer.

For this responsibility as a foster father, I had the advantage that as part of my study of sociology of religion, I studied also remedial education for minors in an educational need. I successfully used this knowledge for my responsibility. Recently he presented himself to a social network with the following fields of interests: arts and culture, children, education, human rights, and science and technology. He is a software specialist. I am happy with his development.This is a simple example of what JPIC can do something: wellbeing of children. There are more young Muslims whose lives I have influenced in a constructive way. A father asked me to be the manager of his second son, who is a rapper and to raise him further. I was surprised at the request, but in fact I did it. He, meanwhile, has become an adult and is happy with

me. His family is also happy with him. But still he has to go a long way. He knows this.

We can pray that our Lord will help children, youngsters in need, but finally, maybe we have a task. I did it also with a young man, who is now an adult. As a child of 8 years, he was a victim of domestic violence. I realised that had I been able to speak Arabic fluently and had tried to stop the violence by talking, I would have failed. I had no other option than to let the boy feel that I liked him and that I supported him: an investment for years. Meanwhile I got a position in the family, by which he can now say: “If you beat me, I will tell it to Louis!” The violence against him stopped. Sometimes, the boy wears a cross, but he is Muslim.

One of my best friends is a Muslim from Indonesia. He visited me once. He works in Holland for all kinds of groups. He works also for Catholic women for 20 years. They are happy with him.

An old Palestinian friend of mine, who is 80 years old, lives in the Netherlands and is an imam from the West Bank, from Nablus. He is very much in favour of us friars minor. The reason is simply this: when his father was young, he could study, thanks to our friars at that time, 85 unto 90 years ago!

Enough about Muslims! There is more to tell you. In October 2000, there was the first congress of JPIC in Germany. I attended this congress and I met there a fellow friar from South Sudan, Peter Tindo, a friar with a great and peaceful personality. When I told him that I would go to the Holy Land as a civilian observer in October 2001, he asked me to spend also time for his people, who lived as refugees in Cairo. I went one weekend to them, staying overnight at the Combonians.

In the summer of 2003, I made a follow-up for one and a half month. I met the refugees and heard many stories, which required a follow-up. During a meeting with South Sudanese refugees, I heard two men, who told me something that touched me. One man told me that I was the first one, who listened to them. I felt embarrassed. For me, it is normal to listen to people in order to understand them. These people had to deal at least with officials of the UNHCR, who obviously didn’t listen to them. The other man cried out: “Why am I born with a black skin?” JPIC means at least that we have to listen to people, who are in need! It doesn’t mean that we have to solve their problems. That is not the point! Listen to them and show respect for them without regards to their background. They are human beings, images of our Lord like we are.

What is valid far away is also valid for us. But here I have to be careful and cautious. Talking about JPIC in the world doesn’t make sense, if there is no Justice and Peace among each other here in the Custody. The temptation is to look for someone whom to blame. I am too old to look in this way. I have learned in my life how bad experiences in the past can influence behaviour in the present. I can show it with a simple example. It has

happened that whenever I tried to put my hand on a shoulder of a boy, he shrank back. Obviously he had been beaten many times. Therefore, we have to be aware that some friars have had bad experiences in their life. We cannot blame them for this, but we have to show respect for what we don’t know. JPIC means here investment of time to listen respectfully to bad stories in order to heal wounds by understanding well. This needs qualified listening in order to understand bad stories. This needs also trust, which cannot be imposed. It requires a pastoral attitude.

There are friars who see JPIC as a political work in a negative sense. I recognise it. I give you an example how it works. In the late nineties I attended three times in a row the annual meeting of the shareholders of the Deutsche Bank, the biggest bank in Germany. The first time, I only observed how it works. The second time, I read the annual report and noticed four questions. I asked them and then I had to go to get my last train to Holland. Afterwards I heard that it was said by a member of the Board that I was the first man from the Church who raised good questions. I felt embarrassed because obviously other people from the Church used the opportunity to attack the Deutsche Bank. You can imagine that there are reasons to be critical of the Deutsche Bank, but one must be professional.

The last time I attended the meeting I raised two questions. One was important and for me logical. At that time I organised every year a vigil in front of the ITEC arms fair. So I asked carefully: “What is the relation between the Deutsche Bank and the arms industry?” Immediately after I asked this question an older German person came to me and said that thanks to the banks Hitler could rearm his army in the thirties. This reaction showed that I raised a correct question, which stimulated people to think. The reaction of the Board was remarkable. They were angry. To react in an angry way in such a situation meant that the question was painful, but correct. Obviously I dealt the issue in a professional way, which means without attacking. This is always the point: raise open questions, by which people can answer in a free way. In this way, the other party can answer freely.

Another story is a 21st century fairy tale. On the first of November 2004 I got a chat contact with someone, who I didn’t know. It turned out that he was originally from Rwanda. He and his wife escaped the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and fled to Kenya. There they got two children: a daughter and a son. But the life there was not safe. Policemen robbed refugees. The wife, Chantal, asked for prayers in the parish for her family. Once, when she was in the church, a woman asked: “Who is Chantal, who asked for prayers for her family?” Chantal went to this woman, who made it possible for her and her family to go to Lomé, Togo, There she started to study anthropology and they sent their children to an European school.

I got also chat contact with Chantal. Then, once she asked me, if I could manage it for her to attend a congress in Strasbourg in July 2005. I had never met her.

I had an email contact with a woman, who works for the Supreme Court in Washington, who also I never had met at that time. I asked her, if she could manage the ticket for Chantal. She forwarded this request to a friend from Ivory Coast, who I don’t know either. He worked for the World Bank. He paid the ticket.

On the 14th of July that year, 2005, her birthday, she flew to France. There she asked for political asylum, which she immediately got, because she was born on quatorze Juillet, the national holiday of France. Within a year she got a job, by which she could manage that at the beginning of March 2008 her husband and two children could come to Paris. There they got a third child. She started to work for youth between 12 and 17 years old in East Paris from many different countries. Now she is coordinating this work. Her husband did some study and now he has a job in the intersection between hard- and software. They could buy a house; the oldest daughter is now studying at the university and at the end of August this year, the daughter and the son will join a group from their Parish to visit the Holy Land.

What has it to do with JPIC? The story shows that people with the same talents have a much bigger chance to build up a dignified life in Europe than in Africa. It is a form of injustice, but sometimes the Lord intervenes like here. It is a 21st century fairy tale.

Another experience in my life was my work with drug addicts during twenty years. I learned to see our world with different eyes. They are the lepers of our time. I know something from their background. There is no reason to be jealous of them.

Another time I will present my vision on the conflict here in Israel/Palestine, by understanding its pillars: at one side, the century-lasting European anti-Semitism and at the other side, the notions of chosen people and Promised Land. I can deal with these issues without blaming any party, but just by understanding history from a point of view of human behaviour. I am a human scientist.

An interesting fact is that I have a website “Arabgenerationofpeace.org” which has had already more than one million visitors without advertisement.

I will finalize this presentation of JPIC to emphasize that a basic attitude for JPIC is to see the world through the eyes of the other in order to understand the other. Then a change towards a more peaceful direction is possible.

I address now some questions to you. Deal with each other in small groups your experiences with JPIC in your life according to your perception. I suppose that everyone has his experiences in this realm.

Which experiences you have in your life regarding JPIC. Can you share it with each other? What kind of support is according to you helpful to do something for JPIC?

I ask you to choose for a friar in your community as an animator for JPIC, who like to be alert for JPIC and promote it in cooperation with animators in other communities.

What will help and inspire you to do something for JPIC?

I finish with Admonition or Wisdom saying nr. 27 from Saint Francis

Where there is charity and wisdom / there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility / there is neither anger nor worry.Where there is poverty and joy / there is neither cupidity nor avarice.Where there is quiet and meditation / there is neither solicitude nor dissipation.Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the housethe enemy cannot find a way to enter.Where there is mercy and discretion / there is neither fussiness nor hard-heartedness. Louis Bohte ofm, JPIC