Jordan a refuge in the desert: one of the Middle East's most stable countries offers tolerance, history, and struggle--especially for Christians.

Jordan is stuck in one rough neighborhood. With next-door neighbors like Iraq, Israel, and the West Bank, the country is accustomed to nearby discord and disruption. Despite each incident and tension over at the neighbors', Jordan somehow manages to hang onto its status as one of the few stable, secure places in the Middle East.

That status is tenuous, though. In the months before the American-led attack on Iraq, uncertainty seemed to permeate Jordanian air: How would everything hold together as a wave of anticipated Iraqi refugees cross its border?

Today, more than 4.6 million people--many who are former refugees themselves--call the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan home. Their country is one of 58 Islamic states worldwide, and about 92 percent of Jordanians are Sunni Muslims. But roughly 4 to 6 percent of Jordanians are Christian.

Regardless of religious differences and the state of the region, Jordanians are quick to share with visitors three key facts about their country: that Jordan's doors are open to all; that the "Jordanian family" includes both Christian and Muslim members; and that even though Jordan is now a Muslim state, it's also the cradle of Christianity.

The waves of people seeking shelter during the last 55 years alone have stretched Jordan's resources thin and left its doormat worn.

During the Intifada of the last few years, thousands of Palestinian refugees have entered Jordan's western border. During the Gulf War the country hosted more than a million refugees, the government reported--almost a third of Jordan's entire population at the time--and about 300,000 remained after the war.

In the 1970s and '80s, Lebanese fled to Jordan to escape their country's civil war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians came during the war-torn years of 1948 and 1967. And before and after these major onslaughts, a steady flow of people continued to come to Jordan in search of safe haven.

A majority of Jordanians are of Palestinian descent, and perhaps 40 to 50 percent "feel Palestinian," says author and journalist Rami Khouri, who met with a group of American Catholic journalists as they embarked on a visit to his home country. But while many live in Palestinian refugee camps, the country has a unique policy of granting full citizenship to any Palestinian who seeks it, and most have become "mainstream" Jordanians living among the native residents.

Others come from more far-off locales. More than 8,000 Filipinos live in the kingdom, mostly young women who are employed in Jordanian households. Thousands more come from Sri Lanka and India.

But as Jordan opens its doors to immigrants, many Jordanians themselves are emigrating.

"The problems facing Jordanians are mainly economic," says Ra'ed Bahou, the regional director for Jordan and Iraq for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. A papal agency that offers humanitarian and pastoral support, CNEWA in Jordan focuses primarily on health care and educational programs.

But some Jordanians also face problems of a more religious nature. And with such a small percentage of Christians in the country, this emigration is taking a greater toll on the Christian community.

A small group with a big job

Less than 50 years ago, Greek Melkite Catholic Archbishop George al-Murr estimates, 10 percent of Jordan's population was Christian. Now, because of emigration: a low birth rate among Christians, and a large number of Muslim immigrants, that number has dwindled to its lowest level. "Sooner or later," al-Murr says, "this will be a holy land without a holy people."

Of Jordan's Christian population, most belong to Greek Orthodox churches. Smaller numbers of Roman Catholics, Eastern rite Catholics, and members of other Orthodox churches also live in Jordan, as do a smattering of mainline Protestants.

"Our culture is a mosaic culture," says Fakhry Abu Shakra, executive director of the World Affairs Council in Amman.

That promise of tolerance and diversity is often not enough to entice people to stay. "Young people who have a chance to emigrate often do," says Shakra. "And that emigration is much more catastrophic for the Christian community."

The Roman Catholic Church in Jordan is run by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who also oversees the church in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and Cyprus. In 2000, the patriarchate had 42,200 members, with 30 parishes and 35 priests.

While numbers may be shrinking, the churches' pastoral responsibilities seem to be expanding. "A few years ago it was enough to have a parish and a school," says Bishop Selim Sayegh, the Latin patriarchal vicar in Amman. "Now it's not." In addition to addressing the needs of its own members, the Christian churches offer aid to others, mainly refugees, who struggle to make it.

"Right now, the main problem for us is the Iraqi people," says Sayegh. "Our means of helping them is very limited." In Amman, the patriarchate offers Chaldean Catholic Masses for Iraqi refugees and a school program for their children. The church also sponsors a rosary-making program, so Iraqi refugees who don't have permits to work outside the home make some money--but the extra 30 to 40 dinar (between $42 and $56) each month does little more than help them eke out a bare existence.

In the northern industrial city of Zerqa, Jordan's second largest, the Mother of Mercy Clinic serves a mainly refugee population from a nearby Palestinian camp and focuses on prenatal and infant care. Sponsored by CNEWA and run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, a Chaldean Catholic community from Iraq, the clinic serves more than 1,200 clients a month.

The Roman Catholic community is in the process of building Our Lady of Peace Center, a facility outside of Amman that will provide training and care for the disabled. Since few places in the country offer such services, Sayegh says, "it's a must for the church to address this."

The center will also serve as a meeting place for young Christians of all denominations, says Bishop Sayegh. "Within the Christian community, the main issue is unity." The center may also serve an international need: "Jordan is the only country in the region open to all."

And in a society with such a strong Muslim culture, "they have to really choose to be Christian," Sayegh says. But unlike American youth, "[religious] freedom is very limited. You have to declare either a Muslim or Christian identity. There's no other option."

Freedom, to an extent

Even though the concept of one "Jordanian family" is popular, inequalities plague some of the family's members.

"Jordan is one of the most open, free, and progressive Islamic states, but it's still an Islamic state," says Msgr. Robert Stern, secretary general of CNEWA. "All laws must be interpreted by religious Muslim laws." So while the government is tolerant of its Christian citizens, religious freedom only extends so far. Marriages between Christians and Muslims--fairly common in Jordan--are a good example.

While a Muslim man is free to marry a Christian woman, it's illegal for a Christian man to marry a Muslim woman. Children of intermarriages are legally considered Muslim and are not allowed to be raised Christian. "Religiously, they are not free to do what they want," says Archbishop al-Murr. "Legally, there are no rights for a Christian in this type of marriage. The Muslim has all the rights."

Both al-Murr and Sayegh say they are seeing "more and more" intermarriages, and the numbers are not limited to the legally and religiously sanctioned Muslim man and Christian woman pairing. When it's a Christian man and a Muslim woman who want to get married, they say, probably the best pastoral advice they can give is for them to leave the country.

Evangelization is also a thorny issue for Christians living in Jordan. While Christians are free to become Muslim, it's illegal for Muslims to convert to Christianity. Christians are also banned from evangelizing and proselytizing. When people are interested in becoming Christian, it can take years to ascertain their motives and share the teachings of the faith in such a way that doesn't draw attention.

These types of obstacles keep the vast majority of Muslim Jordanians from knowing much about the faith of their Christian compatriots.

The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) is a nine-year-old center in Amman formed by Prince El Hassan bin Talal, brother of the late King Hussein, that was started, in part, to help remedy that. The center produces newsletters and other publications that focus on respecting and understanding "the other" that lives in the same country.

"If I meet with the other, it doesn't mean I'm a syncretist," says Hassan. "If you want to know how to relate to others, you have to be constantly reminded." RIIFS, he says, "encourages Arab Christians to develop the noble art of conversation and writing," and also sponsors academic conferences and speakers.

Jordan's roots

Despite the challenges Christians face, Jordan does offer them a big advantage: first-hand experience of the very land where Moses died, where Jesus was baptized, and where the. early church took root.

"This is the Holy Land, after all," says the World Affairs Council's Shakra. "Jesus wasn't baptized in Omaha."

A community of Franciscans lives atop Mount Nebo and cares for the fifth-century basilica that commemorates the place where Moses overlooked the Promised Land before his death.

Jordan's Baptism Archeological Park opened in 2001 on the Jordan River, which flows between Jordan on the east and the West Bank and Israel on the west. Although Israel also claims a long-standing site purported to be the place of Jesus' baptism, archeological finds since 1996 point to this place as "Bethany beyond the Jordan," where Jesus was baptized and John the Baptist carried out his mission. Archeological crews continue to dig in the area, recently unearthing four churches that date back to the fifth and sixth centuries.

Near Mount Nebo, well-preserved Byzantine mosaics are in churches in the central city of Madaba.

Before September 11, 2001, before USAID worker Laurence Foley was assassinated in Amman last fall, and before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, foreign visitors--mainly Christians from the U.S. and Europe--flocked to these sites as part of pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Now, the baptismal park and the old churches and the memorial to Moses are quiet, and Jordanians are the poorer for it. Tourism is at a standstill, making the economic situation even more dismal for Jordanians.

"In the old times, pilgrimage was very risky," says Michael Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. "We need a new kind of pilgrim to witness these difficult times."

Shaking off the welcome mat

Meanwhile, the government and humanitarian agencies in Jordan ready themselves for the consequences of the war next door. With the same order of Dominicans working at the clinic in Zerqa, CNEWA has set up 20 emergency centers in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra to distribute food, clothing, and medical supplies.

Few residents of Iraq had fled to Jordan after the first week of this latest invasion. Still, Jordan's welcome mat is out: the government promises that its borders will remain open, and humanitarian aid workers are prepared to welcome those who may later arrive--Muslims and Christians alike--in hopes of escaping the destruction of this war.

JORDAN'S TOP TOUR SITES

Jordan may be less well known than its neighbor Israel for holy sites, but the country has enough biblical connections to have made it an important part of many Holy Land tours. Only these days, Jordan usually is not on the itinerary.

"People are concerned with the political situation right now," says Nicholas Mancino, president of Regina Travel, a New Jersey company that specializes in Catholic pilgrimages to Europe, Mexico, and the Middle East. Regina used to offer Holy Land tours that included Jordan, but their recent tour groups have only visited Israel. "Jordan and Israel are a great combination-Jordan has wonderful sites," Mancino says.

Will Regina resume tours to Jordan in the future? "God willing," Mancino says. "Someday that whole region will be peaceful."

For the 2000 Jubilee, the Vatican named five pilgrimage sites in Jordan:

Bethany beyond the Jordan, the Jordan River site where Jesus is believed to have been baptized, and a place long associated with Old Testament prophets Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha.

Mar Elias, a shrine in northern Jordan commemorating the birthplace of the Prophet Elijah.

The modern Marian shrine at Anjara, Local faithful believe that Mary, Jesus, and his disciples once passed through Anjara on the way from Jerusalem to Galilee and rested in a cave there.

Makawer, near the city of Madaba, where John the Baptist was beheaded.

Mount Nebo, just northeast of the Dead Sea, where Moses viewed the Promised Land and then died before entering (Deut. 32:49-52).

Other Jordan spots are also on Christian pilgrims' tour maps:

Jerash, north of Amman, is one of the cities of the Decapolis, where Jesus preached to thousands and one of the best preserved Greco-Roman cities.

The city of Madaba, home to the oldest Byzantine mosaic map of the Holy Land.

Gadara, or Um Qais, also part of the Decapolis in far northwestern Jordan, where Jesus cast out the unclean spirits that fled into a herd of swine, and then ran in to the Sea of Galilee and drowned. (Matt. 8:28-33).

Petra, the ancient city in southern Jordan carved out of rock (and featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), was a major center of commerce around the time of Jesus and was the home to a large first-century monastery.

HEATHER GRENNAN is an assistant editor at U.S. CATHOLIC. She traveled to Jordan with CNEWA.