On board the same ship

This article is also available in Arabic.

By Fr. Dr. Rif'at Bader:

Praise the Lord, one of the benefits of the “safe summer” this year, is the return of  "physical" conferences that we longed for, after having held hundreds of virtual conferences that we are accustomed to, of course, which lack real participation and interaction among the participants. Accordingly, the Catholic Center for Studies and Media (CCSM) held, a few days ago, the first "physical" conference after restrictions have been eased in the wake of the spread of Corona virus. The conference, patronized by Minister of Culture Ali Al-Ayed was titled, "Fratelli Tutti" (You Are All Brothers).

The conference stressed that today we are on one ship with large waves rising above it. The Corona wave was not the first one and it will not be the last. We are in the midst of the sea; we are still sailing and proceeding, yet we need to enroot and entrench a real culture, a constructive culture, a culture that bodes well for the future, and a culture instilling grace that transcends simple hope so that man can witness a decent, free, pioneering, and creative life in all areas of presence in this life.

We thank God these days, for the blessing of healing the homeland, and, God willing, we are moving towards full recovery. Life will restore to life, namely to normalcy, but we need to grasp lessons, the most important of which are: How do we entrench the culture of brotherhood and solidarity among all spectrums of society, regardless of religion, race, gender, nationality, as well as political or social affiliation? The world has been united in the face of suffering, and now it is united in hope. We need to have these words become part of our daily culture, namely a culture that transcends the information that modern media inundates us on daily bases.

As we mark the centenary of this homeland and the well-established state of Jordan, we plead with the Almighty God--Who has bestowed upon us a large number of pioneering educational institutions as well as intellectual and cultural institutions--to help us maintain a culture of brotherhood and solidarity as an essential part of our local culture that we export to the entire world …

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