EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW

WITH HIS HOLINESS, PATRIARCH ZAKKA IWAS 1st

IN JULY 1995 (MONTREAL, CANADA)

Your Holiness, we would like to ask you a question dear to our heart : What are your personal impressions on the Soufanieh phenomenon in Damascus?

Those apparitions were perceived by me, right from the start, as being of divine origin and as an alarm signal which reminds us, before anything, not to lead a materialistic life without divine benevolence. God would like to tell us that Heaven is with us and, for sure, the apparitions of the Virgin Mary and the signs which accompany them encourage us very much; all the more since the words that we hear from Myrna are the ones of the Virgin Mary on the necessity to repent and to work and aim towards Christian unity, as this is a very noble goal.

Obviously, all the signs that we are observing as well as the prevailing good reputation linked with the permanence of prayer in Soufanieh are a clear indication to us that it is the Lord Himself who desires that we unite and pray together. Thanks to God, no deviation has manifested itself throughout those apparitions. Furthermore, the fact of spreading this message across the world and the testimony of very numerous persons, many of them non-believers, in various specialized fields, add weight to the authenticity of the message.

This is what I can observe. I am convinced that many people, even some that use to question the authenticity of Soufanieh, are now starting to believe that we find there the hand of God at work. As for me, I am happy to know that you are also working for that cause and that you are encouraging the people to reach this noble aim, the messages of which have also reached us through Soufanieh, especially those concerning love and Christian unity.

Which message would you like to relay to us so that we can realize this aim in our Oriental churches in Canada and unify our hearts towards the real road that leads to the unity of the various churches?

The unity of hearts is, first and foremost, our sentiment of Christian responsiblity and our testimony for Christ, our Lord. Furthermore, this testimony manifests itself practically through our behaviour amongst people, the way we are, not by simulating our love towards others but by loving them sincerely and without differentiating one church from another. I also think that Christian unity is not the union of leaders or potentates: Christ has come to serve and not to be served. All the holy apostles are the servants of Christ and the sacerdotal mission that we have received from our forefathers and the apostles themselves makes us become the servants of Christ and the servants of believers in Christ and for Christ.

This is why we strive so that our hearts unite in sincerity and love of our fellow-creatures without trying to distinguish between communities, since it is essential that each of us attaches himself to the community and rite to which he belongs. As a matter of fact, this is a rich patrimony for christianity and a valuable grace we have received from God so that we could praise Him in all languages, across our various rites and with plenty of love. And for sure, we glorify Him and adore Him through the Spirit and the Truth.

This is a transcription of the videotaped interview.