MENA GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN AMMAN, JORDAN

As every year, the OIEC region MENA held its annual general meeting. This year, the meeting took place from 8 to 13 October in Amman, Jordan, at the Sisters of the Rosary. All the countries in the region were represented, including Djibouti and Turkey, who joined the MENA in 2017. Each country was able, through its national representative, to share the information that is particularly relevant to it.
The meeting was marked by the issue of refugees from Syria and Iraq, both in Jordan and Lebanon. We have seen that the Church is trying, with its poor means to cope with the inflow of refugees in these countries: 1 million in Jordan with a population of 8 million, and 2 million in Lebanon with a population of 6 million. In comparison France, a country of 60 million inhabitants welcomed 10,000 refugees in 2017. Such a population movement requires the establishment of reception facilities, particularly in education. The participants of this general assembly had the chance to visit a children’s reception center, run by the Catholic Church of Jordan, and this visit left no one indifferent. This meeting was also an opportunity for participants to visit some places in the Holy Land, including Mount Nebo, overlooking the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. Mount Nebo is associated with Moses, since it is from this place that Moses showed his people returning from Egypt the promised land.