Syria ousts Paolo Dall’Oglio, Jesuit priest, for criticism of Assad government
Syria has now expelled Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest, who has been outspoken against the government’s use of violence during the recent uprisings.
Photo/http://www.deirmarmusa.org
Paolo Dall’Oglio has been living in Syria for 30 years, helping restore a monastery which is dated atleast 1,000 years and has been used to bring understanding and peace between the Muslims and the Christians.
Facebook campaign defending his right to stay, but had to leave Damascus by Saturday, NPR.comrevealed Monday.
“I am very moved by the face of many youth that have been suffering enormously to achieve their desire of freedom and dignity,” Dall’Oglio said last week from the garden of his home in Damascus as he bade farewell to friends and supporters before his expulsion. “There are so many young persons that are put in jail and tortured, just because they have expressed, nonviolently, their opinions.”
In 2011 he wrote a text in which he proposed a peaceful solution to the problems posed by popular uprisings broke out in Syria , pointing the way for a political transition to democratic institutional architecture, based on the consensus of the various components and religious and social sensibilities that coexist in Syria. It was followed by the reaction of the regime of Assad who is involved in a fierce repression of the protests, has decreed the expulsion of Dall’Oglio from Syria.
One of his posts – Easter 2012
Translation from Arabic
Easter comes after a year of untold suffering, unpredictable and unimaginable for most of us. Unfortunately, what we wrote on the same occasion a year ago still applies to the current situation of our unhappy country. At that time, we had expressed our solidarity with the victims of the conflict and our participation in the expectation of those who were hoping for a deep reform of Syria without falling into the logic of violence, and fearing the explosion of civil war and loss of national unity. Misfortune has reached us and we fear the worst.
