User:Henri Boulad

Henri Boulad
Henri Boulad was born in Alexandria in 1931. Through his father he is descended from Syrian Christians of the Greek Catholic Melchite rite who came to Egypt from Damascus in1860. The Boulads belong to the old Damascus middle class, having produced several churchmen such as Fr Abdel Messih (Damascus) and Fr Antoune Boulad (St Saviour’s Monastery, Lebanon). Boulad entered the novitiate in 1950 with the Jesuits of Bikfay, Lebanon. From 1952 to 1954, he studied in the Jesuits’ internal training school in Laval (France), then, from 1954 to 1957, he studied philosophy at the Jesuit scholasticate at Chantilly, France. He taught for two years at the Holy Family College in Cairo. After a term of theological studies in Lebanon (from 1959 to 1963), he was ordained priest in 1963 according the Melchite rite. In 1965, he participated in a Jesuit course of study at Pomfret, Connecticut and obtained his doctorate in the psychology of education at the University of Chicago. Returning to his native Egypt, he has lived there since 1967. He was the superior of the Jesuits in Alexandria, then the Provincial of Jesuits in the Near-East, and professor of theology in Cairo. In 2004, he became the Rector of Holy Family College in Cairo. He is devoted to the service of abandoned children, both Muslim and Christian and pursues this concern with Caritas. From 1984 to 1995, he was director of Caritas in Egypt, and president of Caritas in North Africa and the Near East. From 1991 to 1995, he was the vice-president of Caritas International for the Near East and North Africa. In 2007, he wrote an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI published in 2009 as SOS pour l'Église d'aujourd'hui. He called for a restructuring of the Catholic Church and proposed a theological and catechetical reform, a pastoral reform and a spiritual renewal, to be discussed in a global church synod. In 2010, he exhorted Europe "not to lose its soul." Well acquainted with Islam, through constant contact since his childhood in Egypt, he is very critical of certain of its contemporary manifestations, while insisting that the dialogue between Christians and Muslims must continue. A defender and campaigner for human rights, he was a well-placed observer of the Arab Spring and in particular of the 20011 Egyptian Revolution. He calls the West not to yield to cynicism, to support the aspirations of peoples to freedom, and to not ally themselves with religious fundamentalists. Fr Boulad has published almost 30 books in 15 languages, particularly in French, Arabic, Hungarian and German. He was made a Commander of the Ordre des Palmes académiques.