Meeting in Morocco

Illiteracy and prejudice still maintain a fearsome gulf between Moslem Morocco (see FOREIGN NEWS) and the Christian West. But miles south of the ancient Moslem holy city of Fez, high in the oak-thicketed Atlas Mountains, a band of black-robed Roman Catholic monks last week went quietly about their accustomed work: building a retreat where Moroccans and Europeans can meet, trade social and political theories, and learn each other's foreign ways. Their oasis of understanding is Morocco's only Christian monastery, the Benedictine Priory of Christ le Roi at Tioumliline.

The Bridge. It was Oct. 7, 1952 when 15 priests and five lay brothers arrived from France at an abandoned children's camp at Tioumliline. Their mission: to transform the camp into a monastery, follow the secluded, contemplative life of their order. But the goal soon broadened; the Benedictines sheltered Arab political refugees displaced by the swelling national unrest, and word of the monks' kindness quickly spread. Soon the monks were treating some 200 Berbers a day at their newly built dispensary, sheltering and educating a flock of 20 orphan boys. No attempt at conversion was made. In fact, monks encouraged the young Moroccans to worship actively in their Moslem religion. Tribesmen and city dwellers respected the Benedictines, bestowed on them a title of high honor: "True Moslems."

The Moroccans also needed other kinds of help. "They asked us constantly for books, instruction and conferences," said Dom Denis Martin, 49, who has directed the priory since its beginning. In 1954 the monastery began to serve as a meeting place for Moslem and Christian students, for French colons and Moroccan nationalists. The carefully maintained neutral ground of the priory became a bridge between widely separated social customs, religious and political beliefs. In 1955, when the sputtering hill war broke into insurrection, the Benedictines gave refuge to between 200 and 300 students.

The Truth. Last year, after weeks of discussion, the monks decided to broaden their cultural bridge. With the agreement of Sultan Mohammed V, they built a lecture hall, laid foundations for a tent city and gardens, sent invitations to the world's universities for scholars to attend a three-week seminar on social, religious and political problems, e.g., "The Role of Women in International Life," "The Black World and Modern Civilization." The conference was a success; some 150 students from 18 European, Asian and African countries attended the lectures and discussions, and as many as 1,000 spectators crowded into the priory on weekends. A visiting Catholic bishop sat on the floor and ate mutton from a common bowl with the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and a Moslem scholar, listened with a Jewish dignitary while tribesmen beat out Arab rhythms on goatskin tam-tams. "We saw that people living together for three weeks were quickly becoming friends," said Father Martin. "We learned how freely a Moslem and Christian can discuss their faiths, without any compromise on either side." The sultan himself addressed seminar members at his palace in Rabat, prophesied that his new nation would become "a place of meeting and interpenetration of all culture."

In Manhattan last week Father Martin ended a three-month search through the U.S. and Canada for funds and scholars for another international seminar, endorsed by the sultan, this summer. Subject of the second priory conference: education. Ten students from the U.S. will attend the seminar under partial State Department sponsorship, and professors from Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Fordham have agreed to come. Sixteen Canadian students have enrolled, and most of the countries represented last year will send delegations.

Explains Denis Martin: handshaking across the sea is not enough; brotherhood between peoples is achieved only through painfully acquired understanding. "There must be direct contact between peoples so that their differences can be seen and the truth understood," he says. "East and West today live cut off from each other. We must know the truth, and by knowing it we will have love for each other."

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