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From 11th to 22nd March I was fortunate enough to accompany Mother General and Ernestine on their visit to the Communities of the ex-Société de Jesús-Christ in Cairo and Beirut. I would like to share with you some of our impressions of this first contact with the Near East.

First, I want to mention the welcome of our sisters. There are four in Cairo: Paulette, Bernadette, Vergine and Sonia. They received us with great affection, doing everything to make our stay as fruitful as possible.

We stayed in a large apartment near theirs, which enabled us in our comings and goings to get to know the picturesque streets of Cairo. There were lots of donkeys pulling carts, which were breaking under the weight of all kinds of merchandise. The men in the morning meet to breakfast together around a small van that sells all kinds of dishes (that were very unusual to us). Nearly all the women wore a veil, or were dressed in black from head to toe, not showing more than their eyes or glasses. Different neighbourhoods specialised in different types of merchandise (in ours there were sanitary fixtures: bathrooms sets and toilets!). And, of course, there was the call to prayer, which resounded five times a day in all the surrounding mosques… With regard to traffic …if you know Naples, you'll have some idea of it!

For almost a week we were able to get to know each other, share the mission of our sisters, visit the places where they work and meet their collaborators in the different medical-welfare Centres, or in the Egyptian Caritas founded by Paulette's twin brother, a Jesuit, who died recently. We had long community meetings and talked personally to each one. Thus we were able to enter into (or it enabled us to enter into) in some measure the world of the Near East, which is so unknown and disconcerting for us. Meetings with two Jesuit fathers enlightened us with regard to the complexity of the Church in Egypt and concerning the education of youth in this country.

For their part, our sisters asked us many questions about the Company, our way of life (our style of life) etc. We lived this week in an attitude of acceptance, of listening to one another and openness. We felt at home sharing the life of the community. Our sisters, without hiding the difficulties (e.g. to learn Arabic one needs at least two years, studying full time…), convinced us of the validity of a presence in a country, which has great needs a the level of education, welfare and health, etc.
However, we did not spend all the time sitting round a table! We also had to impregnate ourselves with the culture of the country. We had the good fortune to go to the Son et Lumière (Light and Sound) spectacle at the plateau of Gizeh projected on the Pyramids of Kheops, Khephren and Mykerinos, which we were able to admire during the day, when we went on an excursion there - we saw them from on high of course, because we were riding on camels!

We also went through the Saqqarah desert with its famous pyramid, the oldest of them all and we visited many magnificent tombs there. We must not forget the Museum of Cairo and its halls dedicated to the famous treasure of Tutankhamen: it is truly wonderful! Afterwards, going to the Fortress of Mohamed Ali to visit the very beautiful mosque, we passed close to Mount Mokatam where the rag pickers and their families, with whom Soeur Emmanuelle works, live. This very poor region is opposite another district, no less striking, called the City of the Dead: it is a huge cemetery, the tombs, mausoleums and small chapels of which have been occupied by thousands of poor people, who live there.

Soon we left for Beirut where we were from 17th to 22nd March. There we met the five sisters, who live in two groups: Marie-Claude and Marie-Jeanne, with whom we stayed and Olga, Mariam and Juliette, who live in another neighbourhood. There again we experienced good fraternal relations, with meetings characterised by simplicity and openness. The disponibility shown by all impressed us.
We visited the Apostolic Nuncio, who was very homely and welcoming. We went to the social Centre founded by a sister of the Société, we went round a poor district where they work and we met the Rector of the Jesuit University. As in Cairo, these contacts allowed us to gradually get an idea of the reality of the country. It is a country in which the scars of the terrible war, which lasted for 17 years, are still visible. They are visible in the streets or in the houses, pock-marked by bullets or blown apart by shells, which one can see next to more modern constructions; but they are also there at deeper levels, inside people, who have been traumatised by the suffering endured and the tragedies experienced. Our sisters in relation to this have very painful experiences.
The natural scenery of Beirut is splendid. It has a sea shore and a back-drop of snow covered mountains, which means that the population can ski in the morning and swim in the afternoon… We were lucky to be able to visit Harissa. It is the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon. It has many visitors, both Christian and Muslim. Inaugurated in 1908, the statue of Our Lady, 8.5 metres high, on a cone-shaped pedestal of stone 20 metres high, dominates the magnificent Gulf of Jounieh. The Basilica, in the form of a cedar of Lebanon and a Phoenician ship, seems to take off towards heaven… To the Blessed Virgin we commended this new page of our history, which from now on will be shared and which we will write together.
As you can guess, the most important moment of the visit was 20th March with the first celebration of the Merger. It was at the Jesuits. Father Provincial presided, assisted by the Superior of the House. No one from outside was there. It was a very simple, but moving ceremony. At the offertory Marie-Chantal carried a candle, representing what is now her Province. She gave it to Beatriz, who placed it on the altar where others were burning, representing all the Provinces of the Company. Afterwards, following the renovation of vows according to our Formula, each of them was given the Constitutions and the Cross of the Company. This was a very emotive moment.

After the ceremony there was a celebration lunch, for which our sisters had thoughtfully had two beautiful cakes made with the anagram of Mary. During the feast, we were asked to sing a hymn to Saint Jeanne in French. While we were singing it, I was very moved to think that the name of our Holy Mother was being sung now in the lands of Egypt and Lebanon…
To end our visit, the next day we went to visit Byblos (in Arabic Jbeil), considered to be one of the most ancient cities in the world. It was discovered in 1860 by Ernest Renan, a French writer and scholar. The remains that are there bear witness to an uninterrupted life of 8.000 years of history, the traces of which go from Pre-history to the Arab and medieval periods.

To sum up, you can understand how this visit has left the three of us with unforgettable memories and, above all, joy at being able to experience and know the reality of these two countries a little better. When we were taking off from Beirut to return to Rome we felt that we were leaving 9 sisters of the Company there and gratitude to God welled up in our hearts.

CAIRO - BEIRUT