Church leaders fear civil war in Syria

BEIRUT - Pressure being put on the Syrian government could have very bad consequences, especially for Christians, warned the patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church.

Attempts to collapse the government “will very probably lead to chaos,” Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan told Catholic News Service.

“This chaos, surely — with no means to implement security — will lead to civil war,” said the patriarch, who stressed that a civil war in Syria would not merely be a struggle among political parties to control the power. “It will be confessional (religious), and war in the name of God is far worse than a political struggle. And this is what we fear.”

Younan was one of several Christian leaders who spoke with Catholic News Service about the situation facing Syrian Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of the nation’s population. He told CNS what Syria needs is a lot of reforms, a multiparty system of government and freedom of speech. He said the Church “is all for reforms” and does not support a particular regime.

Maronite Catholic leaders are also worried about the situation in Syria.

Archbishop Paul Sayah, vicar general of the Maronite Patriarchate in Beirut, said Syria’s small, minority-represented government, the Alawites, who have been running the country for 40 years, are not going to let go easily because they know if the Sunnis take over, “it’s going to be very dangerous for them, to put it very mildly.”

If change is not brought about peacefully, “there is a risk that it may go from an oppressive regime to a more brutal one, especially now that the atmosphere tends to be rather fundamentalist in the region,” Sayah said. He also expressed concern about a potential civil war.

“Everyone knows what kind of disaster civil war is. Iraq is a very loud example,” he told CNS. “In Iraq the Christian minority paid a huge price. Two-thirds of Christians had to leave Iraq.”