Paolo Dall'Oglio
Paolo Dall'Oglio | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | Presumed dead in 2013 |
Nationality | Italian, Syrian |
Occupation | Priest |
Paolo Dall'Oglio (born November 17, 1954) is an Italian
Before his kidnapping, he had served for three decades at the Deir Mar Musa Al-Abashi, a 6th-century monastery 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Damascus. He has been credited with the reconstruction of the Mar Musa complex and its reinvention as a centre of interfaith dialogue.[3]
In February 2019, news emerged that he may still be alive inside Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria.[4]
Biography
In 1975, Paolo Dall'Oglio joined the
.In 1982, he explored the ruins of the old Syriac Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian (Deir Mar Musa) that can be traced back to the 6th century and had been abandoned since the 19th century.
In 1984, Dall'Oglio was ordained priest in the
In 1986, he obtained another master's degree in Missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
In 1989, he obtained a PhD degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the topic "About Hope in Islam".
In 1992, with deacon Jacques Mourad, Paolo “officially” founded under the authority of the
In 2009, Dall'Oglio obtained the double honorary doctorate of the
He contributed regularly to the magazine "Popoli", the international magazine of the Italian Jesuits, established in 1915.
Role in the Syrian civil war
In 2011, Dall'Oglio wrote an article pleading for a peaceful democratic transition in Syria, based on what he called "consensual democracy". He also met with opposition activists and participated in the funeral service for the 28-year-old Christian filmmaker Bassel Shehadeh, who had been murdered in Homs.[6]
The Syrian government reacted sharply and issued an expulsion order. Dall'Oglio ignored the order for a couple of months and continued living in Syria. However, following the publication of an open letter to UN special envoy Kofi Annan in May 2012,[7] he obeyed his bishop who urged him to leave the country. He left Syria on 12 June 2012 and joined in exile the newly established Deir Maryam al-Adhra of his community in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan.[8]
In December 2012, Dall'Oglio was awarded the Peace Prize of the Italian region of Lombardy that is dedicated to persons having done extraordinary work in the field of peacebuilding.[9]
In late July 2013 Dall'Oglio entered rebel held territory in eastern Syria but was soon kidnapped by the militants of the
However, the
In 2023, Pope Francis wrote the preface for Il mio testamento, a collection of previously unpublished spiritual conferences that Dall'Oglio gave to his monastic community soon before his expulsion from Syria.[14][15]
Selected bibliography
- (in Italian) Speranza nell'Islam: Interpretazione della prospettiva escatologica di Corano XVIII, 365 pp., Marietti, Milano 1991, ISBN 978-8-8211-7461-2
- (in French) Amoureux de l'islam, croyant en Jésus, in cooperation with Églantine Gabaix-Hialé, preface by ISBN 978-2-7082-4044-5
- (in Italian) La sete di Ismaele. Siria, diario monastico islamo-cristiano, Gabrielli Editori, Verona 2011, ISBN 978-8-8609-9141-6
- (in French) La démocratie consensuelle, pour l’unité nationale, 27 July 2011, published on the official website of the monastery of Mar Musa
- (in French) La rage et la lumière, in cooperation with Églantine Gabaix-Hialé, Les Editions de l'Atelier, Paris, May 2013
- (in Italian) Il mio testamento, the Ambrosian Center, 2023, ISBN 978-8-8689-4614-2
See also
References
- ^ "Father Paolo Urges Canadians to Help the People of Syria". Retrieved August 2, 2012.
- ^ "Father Paolo Dall'Oglio: "Please take care of Syria"". PBS. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
- ^ MacFarquhar, Neil (June 21, 2012). "Syria Expels Activist Roman Catholic Priest". The New York Times. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
- ^ "Father Dall'Oglio alive". ANSA. February 7, 2019.
- ^ "KU Leuven Honorary doctors 2009". Retrieved December 26, 2012.
- ^ "Confessional In-Fighting". Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ "Syria, an open letter to Kofi Annan by Fr Paolo Dall'Oglio". Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ "Father Dall'Oglio welcomed in the monastic community which began in Sulaymanya, in Iraqi Kurdistan". Archived from the original on April 14, 2013. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ "A Paolo Dall'Oglio il Premio Pace Regione Lombardia". Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ Oweis, Khaled (July 29, 2013). "Al Qaeda group kidnaps Italian Jesuit Paolo Dall'Oglio in Syria: activists". Reuters. Archived from the original on August 2, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
- ^ Paolo Dall'Oglio killed
- ^ "تحرير سوري | Father Paolo's execution in July 2013 in the hands of the ISIS". Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
- ^ "ISIS Kidnapping Networks". Rewards for Justice. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
- ^ "Pope Francis on Fr Paolo Dall'Oglio's vocation to joy - Vatican News". www.vaticannews.va. July 7, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ "Il mio testamento". ITL Libri (in Italian). Retrieved July 7, 2023.
Further reading
- Shaun O'Neill, A Church of Islam: The Syrian Calling of Father Paolo Dall'Oglio Wipf and Stock Oregon 2019. A summary of the Italian's life and spiritual quest to the Levant, including his political views on the Syrian Civil War and tragic fate in 2013.
- Sutton PublishingStroud 2004, contains a chapter on Paolo Dall'Oglio A Desert Father
- Guyonne de Montjou, Mar Moussa, un monastère, un homme, un désert (French edition), Albin Michel, Paris 2006
- Manoël Pénicaud, Paolo Dall'Oglio, le père bâtisseur, article in Le Monde des religions, No. 49, September–October 2011
- Dana Greene, Witness in the desert: Deir Mar Musa home to monastic community faithful to ideals of sixth-century founder, article in National Catholic Reporter, December 29, 2006
- "We Know We Have Brothers and Sisters in the Islamic Tradition", interview with Paolo Dall'Oglio, November 11, 2009
- Short biography of Paolo Dall'Oglio on the website of the Sham Spiritual Oasis project
- Hoping for a Victory without Revenge Interview with Father Paolo Dall'Oglio on Syria, Qantara.