9 Years Since the kidnapping of Bishops Yazigi and Ibrahim
Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs in a Solidarity Meeting with the "Orthodox Encounter" and the "Syriac League":
They may be alive, but they are living martyrs, since what kind of a life did they have during or after all this detention?
On the occasion of 9 years since the kidnapping of the Bishops Paul Yazigi and John Ibrahim, the “Orthodox Encounter” and the “Syriac League” organized a solidarity meeting on Monday, April 12, 2022 at Le Gabriel Hotel in Achrafieh, Beirut, entitled “We will not forget and we will not be quiet”. The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches participated in the meeting, and delivered a speech entitled “The Registry Is Still Open - When Will the Registry Be Closed? In memory of the kidnapped shepherds”.
Participants were also political figures, representing the three Lebanese presidents, H.E. Metropolitan Elias Kfoury, representing His Beatitude John X, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, H.E. Bishop Georges Saliba on behalf of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Barin Wartanian, representing the Armenian Orthodox Catholicosate of Cilicia, Father Porphyrios Georgi representing H.E. Metropolitan Elias Audeh, Father Marwan Akoury representing H.E. Archbishop Boulos Abdel Sater, in addition to representatives of the various Church families and Christian parties.
The meeting started with a speech delivered by the Secretary General of the "Orthodox Encounter", former deputy Marwan Abou Fadel, in which he welcomed the attendees and said, "we are witnessing the 9th anniversary of the bishops' absence with a hard waiting. He added, "What is the hidden secret behind this humanitarian issue? There are no news or information".
From his side, MECC Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs denounced in his speech the kidnapping of the two bishops, and said, “They may be alive, but they are living martyrs, since what kind of a life did they have during or after all this detention?”. He added “Their news got lost between lies, hypocrisy and indifference! We lost them in the pits of local politics and between the conspiracies of international politics and in the ambitions of the arrogant! Did they want to be in the image of their two eparchies that have been kidnapped for decades, their fate unknown?”.
He continued, “It is a bitterness that has no limits, only those who are firm in the faith can bear it. When societies disintegrate, humankind cannot count its victims and losses, and this is what has happened to the Antiochian Levant. Disintegration, fragmentation and conspiracy; the matter led to a kidnapped Christianity dwelling in the heart of the dragon”. He asked “How can two venerable and peaceful shepherds vanish and disappear to an area where the civil peace is in need of them, and without the world making a move to return them safely and honorably to their families and people?”.
Dr. Abs also said “The international stakeholders themselves are the ones who own the monitoring and gauging techniques. They can take people's breath away. Can they not inform us about the fate of the two shepherds? But it seems that what is required is suspicion, ambiguity, obscurity… We are required to be martyrs in a martyred nation, offering one sacrifice after the other ad infinitum. It is required that the registry of our martyrs remains open”.
He ended, “How long will the registry remain open? When shall this registry be closed?”.
The meeting also included speeches of hope and solidarity condemning this "heinous kidnapping" and indifference towards it, and stressing on the fact that "the will to live and stay in our land is greater than all the conspiracies against the people of the region."
