ROME (CNS): Although Barnabite Father Giovanni Scalese, head of the Catholic mission in Afghanistan, found himself back in his native Italy after the fall of Kabul, his thoughts remained with the Church he was forced to leave behind.
“We continue to pray for Afghanistan. We cannot abandon this country and its suffering people,” Father Scalese said in an interview published on August 26 with SIR, the news agency of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
Father Scalese was among thousands of who had to flee the country after the Taliban, that ruled Afghanistan until ousted by a United States-led coalition nearly 20 years ago, took control of the country prior to the withdrawal of US forces on August 31.
He, along with five nuns of the Missionaries of Charity along with 14 orphaned and disabled children and young adults in their care at the Charity House in Kabul, landed safely at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on August 25.
According to a report by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the orphans, many of whom are in wheelchairs, are between the ages of six and 20.
“Our centre is no longer open, it is closed and we are destroyed,” a Missionary of Charity nun from Madagascar told La Repubblica. “It is done, there is no hope in Kabul.”
Father Scalese told the newspaper, “I said it and I have done it … I would have never returned to Italy without these children. We couldn’t leave them there.”
‘Our presence is exclusively at the service of non-Afghani, foreign Catholics. The Missionaries of Charity work with the Afghanis in a totally neutral way … and do not proselytise’
Father Giovanni Scalese
Pope Francis appointed the priest in 2014 as the superior of the Catholic Church’s mission in Afghanistan, which was established by Pope St. John Paul II, sui juris [of one’s own right] in May 2002, and led by the Clerics Regular of St. Paul, known as the Barnabites.
The pontifical mission is housed in the Italian embassy, which was the largest contributor to the US-led international military coalition. The sole parish in Afghanistan, the Chapel of Our Lady of Divine Providence, is located at the embassy.
The mission’s work is limited to charitable and humanitarian activities because the Islamic faith is recognised as the state religion in the country of 37 million people “and conversion to other religions is a crime of apostasy,” Father Scalese explained.
“Since its inception, the Catholic mission has never baptised any Afghanis because this is stipulated in the agreements from the beginning,” he added, stressing, “Our presence is exclusively at the service of non-Afghani, foreign Catholics. The Missionaries of Charity work with the Afghanis in a totally neutral way … and do not proselytise.”
Father Scalese told SIR that although he “felt concerned” after the Taliban took over the capital, he felt safe being inside the embassy.
“Outside the gates of our embassy there were Taliban [fighters] who, if they had wanted to harm us, could have done so. But absolutely nothing happened,” he recalled. “I was more worried about the [Missionaries] of Charity, who had remained in their homes and were therefore more exposed and afraid.”
Nevertheless, Father Scalese said that while waiting to board the next available flight, “we never felt alone,” and both Church and state authorities were in constant contact with them.
Pope Francis “was interested in the matter and followed it,” he said.
Instead, ‘within a few days everything collapsed: government, army, police forces. The Taliban did not fight to seize power, they just took it over. It was a good thing in part because they avoided a huge bloodbath. There have been deaths, but it is not a civil war’
Father Scalese
Trying to leave Kabul
The Barnabite priest said the group attempted to leave the country several days before their arrival in Rome, only to be forced to turn back from the airport “because the situation was deteriorating.”
He said, “We only managed to get through the entrance the other night. It was not easy to pass through so many people and the enormous tension.”
Father Scalese added, “The Taliban, among other things, had issued a warning that they would close the roads to the airport to Afghanis, allowing only foreigners to pass through. As soon as we arrived, we were put on a military flight that, after a stopover in Kuwait, arrived in Rome.”
Father Scalese told SIR that in his seven years in Afghanistan, he did not expect “such a sudden and abrupt conclusion.”
While the threat of the Taliban regaining control of the country was known, “we all hoped for a more negotiated conclusion” aimed at finding a compromise that would lead to the formation of “a transitional government or one of national unity,” the priest said.
Instead, “within a few days everything collapsed: government, army, police forces. The Taliban did not fight to seize power, they just took it over. It was a good thing in part because they avoided a huge bloodbath. There have been deaths, but it is not a civil war,” he said.
Although the Taliban have promised no revenge or retaliation against Afghan citizens who collaborated with US and NATO forces, Father Scalese said many of those who helped had already fled the country.
Furthermore, he said, “those who are leaving the country these days are well-educated, prepared people. Their departure is an impoverishment for Afghanistan. I hope that the new Taliban regime will respect what it has declared in these days: no revenge.”
Father Scalese told SIR that despite his own abrupt departure, “if the conditions were right for a return, I would have no problem returning.”
He said, “But it doesn’t depend on me. If the Holy See believes that there are conditions to resume the mission, why not?”
Father Scalese added, “We are not concerned with politics but in serving the Afghan people. It is not up to us to decide who should govern this country.”
