The testimony of people like Guadalupe Rodrigo is invaluable. After almost twenty years in the Middle East, few people can give a more reliable account of what is happening in Syria.
She has seen how a bountiful and rich country is now in ruins, and she knows that one of the groups that are suffering the most are Christians.
Sister Guadalupe believes there is a systematic targeting of Christians. This is not just one person's opinion. Facts speak for themselves.
SISTER GUADALUPE RODRIGO
Institute of the Incarnate Word
'You can see that their first target is Christians. Their neighborhoods have suffered the worst attacks. The neighborhoods of Al-Midan, Sulaymaniyah, Al-Aziziyah. Neighborhoods in which the attacks are much more intense. Easter, Christmas. A storm of projectiles of and missiles. It is a direct attack against Christians. Killing people every day just because they are Christians.'
And, according to Sister Guadalupe, the massacre of Christians is not only a humanitarian tragedy. The country's diversity and cultural life is also being destroyed.
SISTER GUADALUPE RODRIGO
Institute of the Incarnate Word
'Muslims say it. They have told me. Muslims in Aleppo. They say 'we are worried that Christians are disappearing. What will we do without Christians. In Aleppo there are half a million Christians, and now there are barely 20,000. Muslims in Syria fear for their country without Christians. They said that it is Christians who raise the academic quality in universities. It is Christians who raise the cultural level. Christians bring values to our society. Values that we do not have, such as forgiveness. They are aware of the importance of Christians in the Middle East. More so than in the Western world.'
Sister Guadalupe is one of the last Christians in Aleppo. Even though she thinks that the situation is desperate right now, the political landscape of the world is shifting in their favor, so she retains hope for a land that has lost everything.
