Intervention of Mrs. Jocelyne KHOUEIRY, Founding member and President of the lay movement "La Libanaise-Femme di 31 May" (LEBANON), auditor

I would like to pause on the notion of “presence” as mentioned in the conclusion of the lineamenta. As a Christian woman belonging to the Church in an Arab and Middle Eastern world, I believe that the quality of our presence as Christians greatly depends on the permanence of our existence before the Lord our Savior and before our brothers in this region. The conclusion of the text states that this presence could become important and a considerable factor in our behavior.

I think we are called upon to being (and not only to formulate) a real, human and cultural answer to all the questions posed by our generation. An answer that reflects the meaning of the new man and the sacred value of his life. We must give opportunities to women, children, couples, families and especially handicapped persons in our Church to be able to make a choice of life coherent with the Gospel and to discover their own mission within the Church and the Arab and Middle Eastern societies. I hope we can pay special attention on the moral, social and bio-ethical issues touching the essence of our witness especially because our society is not sheltered from the acts that harm the dignity of marriage, procreation and the human embryo. To integrate distant preparation to marriage and family values must be included in the priorities of our educational and pastoral programs to contribute to facing with conscience and responsibility the shifts in the consumer society which has invaded us despite the existential difficulties we are living. So that the Christian woman can express herself and bear witness to the beauty of faith and the true sense of dignity and freedom is also an urgent witness that calls upon the Muslim woman and opens new paths for dialogue. So that our families may be supported and accompanied by their church, mother and teacher, so that that may concretely and deliberately be the sanctuaries open to the gift of life especially when this last one is blessed by a handicap or socio-economic difficulties, not being a secondary factor when faced with the continuous threat of emigration. A conversion, on the level of our scale of values and our way of being, is very urgent. We are called upon to become like Mary, the servants of Hope in this region wounded and victim of so much injustice. And what blocks him from entrusting in him or even consecrating to him the Middle East threatened by so many fatal dangers?

[00129-02.02] [UD012] [Original text: French]