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Exclusive interview for Argumentum.al with the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Tirana-Durrës Mons. Arjan DODAJ
By Marjana Doda
Editor-in-Chief
Metropolitan Archbishop of Tirana – Durrës, Mons. Arjan Dodaj, in an exclusive interview for Argumentum.al, talks about the journey of the first year as Archbishop at the head of the Catholic Church after Pope Francis officially proclaimed him on November 30, 2021.
“It has been such a long journey but at the same time very short; almost a year passed without realizing it. However, stopping a little the “klepsidra” for not allowing the sand to go down without leaving a trace in my existence, I see in reality that this span of the year has been a blessed year full of graces that have left traces on the faces and hearts of too many people I have met,” says Monsignor Dodaj.
However, his religious journey began very early when he left Albania as an immigrant to Italy after the 90s.
“Only God can be the author of our walk. I have never imagined that I would become a priest, but in the encounter with a living experience of religion I met religion in the person of Jesus Christ”, says Monsignor Doda
“In the historical stages of our existence, there are some dates and some moments that we think we choose, but, in fact, God has made them important for us. For example, on the 30th of November of 1997, I entered the seminary when I began my life in training to become a priest in the community. And on November 30, 2021, my name as Archbishop was published. So here are things that God somehow marks them so that our history not to be merely a passing human history but truly becomes a divine history forever.
The episcopal motto chosen by Archbishop Dodaj in this religious journey is “Here is Your Mother!” an anthem for all Mothers.
“We know very well that every family is beautiful and sweet, strong in the face of any challenge of poverty or other difficult situations that it may encounter and there is a Mother with a big heart in this family. We are therefore first called through the hearts of mothers. Let’s live what Pope Francis tells us “the revolution of gentleness”. Nothing is done, not even with force, violence or shouting, but we change many things with a mother’s heart. Let’s learn in the school of love of a mother of love like Maria, and learn to love each other more”, emphasizes the Archbishop.
Listing some of the most important events of this year for him at the head of the Catholic Church, Monsignor Arjan Dodaj talks about the great festival of Prayer and Peace with the participation of hundreds of young men and women, regardless of religion or opinion. Based on the calls for peace in Ukraine, Monsignor Dodaj says: “Ukraine is only a vent valve of a context that, as Pope Francis says, of a third world war that is divided into parts around the globe.”
“The experience of peace and the experience of prayer is an experience of blessing for every person of any religion whatever, and this experience was perceived vividly that day thanks to the moment of prayer, the moment of sharing of one of these that come from the experience of Medjugorje where in 1981 Our Lady began to tell Ivan Dragicevic. This prayer experience for me has been encouraging since the first moment when Pope Francis, seeing the hardness and vacuum of the response of the world leaders for peace from the beginning in Ukraine, he made an appeal to the whole Church, but not only the Church, to all willing people to gather on March 25 and make this act of dedication to the Virgin Mary to seek peace”.
Another very special and exciting moment is the Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Easter Mass in Tepelena celebrated by 5 Catholic priests in 1952, and at the same time leading the Holy Mass in the premises of the former prison of Spaçi, in Mirdita.
Both events are connected to each other for me, says Archbishop Arjan Dodaj. “It was truly an experience of a celebration in hell where Light rules and wins, Life rules and wins.”
“First, regarding the 70th anniversary of this mass in Tepelena, I was invited by Mons. Pelagine for the marking of this anniversary. Listening to the stories of that camp, I was moved in my heart by the fact that today in the current society, the younger generations in Albania have no awareness at all of what the recent past of our people really contains, which is the reason why we are here in this situation. So if we don’t go back to notice what happened, if we don’t refresh our memory, we will risk repeating the mistakes of the past. Driven by this desire we at least carried out this experience together in those prisons where many priests, our ancestors have donated, sacrificed, imprisoned their existence. It has truly been an experience of a celebration in hell where Light rules and wins, Life rules and wins. But if we do not become aware that hell exists, it means that we are not living. Because we consider normal the hell we have outside. Therefore, some situations are very fundamental to rediscover the value of life, of freedom, of love, of human dignity.”
Regarding a disturbing phenomenon that is becoming more and more present in Albania in recent years, such as the leaving of the country by young people, Monsignor Dodaj says: “Unfortunately, the new generations, but not only young people but in many families, the first request or question that people try to answer is the fact of a displacement from here. The fact of a search for stability elsewhere, always outside Albania. This is very dramatic. Why, because it makes us forget the self-awareness that no one knows their country and no one knows their people well. The phenomenon of emigration is a phenomenon that belongs to human nature, it has existed since ancient times, and the Holy Book itself is full of them. But for example in the holy book we also have the phenomenon of return. Exodus… I think as I said there is a lack of information on the one hand, so to see what we are looking for there and to know what we will actually find. And the second, of course, is the absence of policies encouraging a greater increase in the standard of living.”
Regarding the family, Monsignor Dodaj says that the Family is a reality that we have received as a gift from God.
“The family exists regardless of our ideas and it is the natural one, which is founded on the Father and the Mother, the husband and the wife, who are precisely those who are called to re-establish life, to give continuity to the human race. This is very fundamental because if we lose this ABC, we cannot continue the dialogue about the future of society, about the future of humanity. Another very fundamental aspect is to go back to the fact that a family needs to have support to be a family, otherwise we really run the risk of having families that are unfortunately very miserable, tested, oppressed, and forgotten.”
As for politics and politicians, the head of the Catholic Church has a message to all policy makers. Albanian politics should discover that to get into politics is not an investment, but it is a service; as Paul VI said politics is the highest way of love.
“Albanian politics should in some way rework the language with which it deals with their internal reality. Albanian politics needs a lot to discover that it is at the service of the “polis” and not the “ego”. Above all, Albanian politics needs to understand that it is political and not business. Albanian politics need to understand that the values you are called to protect are not based on monetary interest, but above all on the greater interest, which is that of the nation, of the country. The interest of the nation surpasses individual interests,” says the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tirana-Durres, Mons. Arjan Dodaj.
The full interview can be found in Albanian at Argumentum.al
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