Emmanuel Macron announced the doubling of funds intended to support Christian schools in the Middle East, Tuesday, February 1, by receiving defenders of these minorities threatened by conflicts and jihadist attacks. “Supporting Eastern Christians is a centuries-old commitment of France, a historic mission”, summarized the Head of State in front of 150 guests at the Elysée Palace. He mentioned “the need to never give up the fight for culture, education, dialogue in this troubled region”. “This mission should never divide us, but unite us”he added.
The State and the Work of the Orient will together double – bringing it to 4 million euros – their contribution to the fund for schools in the Orient, by calling on companies, communities and foundations to join them. Created in January 2020, this fund supported 174 schools last year, including 129 in Lebanon, 16 in Egypt, 7 in Israel, 13 in the Palestinian Territories and three in Jordan. In Lebanon, managing “a school today is a miracle” Due to “the extreme gravity of the crisis that has unfolded” on the country, testified the nun Mariam An-Nour, director of the Saint-Joseph college in Beirut.
During the ceremony, the new President and Director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, announced the opening of a 9th department of the museum dedicated to the arts of Byzantium and Eastern Christianity, which will welcome visitors from the beginning 2025. It will bring together some 12,000 works, “among the most remarkable in the world”she clarified.
Emmanuel Macron announced that France would renew its contribution of 30 million dollars to the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (Aliph), created in 2017 with the United Arab Emirates, which supports 150 damaged cultural places or threatened by the conflicts in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan or by the explosion of the port of Beirut in 2020. He then presented the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honor to the priest Pascal Gollnisch, director general of the Work of East since 2010.
Rooted in the Middle East since the beginnings of Christianity, Christians there have seen their numbers drop from 20% before World War I to 4% today, according to the Vatican. That is some 15 million people.