Jesuit Hans Putman looks back on fifty very eventful years as a priest. He lived in Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Syria and now in Bethlehem. He saw and experienced violence and terror. "The resurrection faith gives strength not to drown in despair."

In the name of the thousands of brothers-priest worldwide, who are faithful and serving the Church and the people, I see it as my moral duty to share something about the long years of my priesthood. At the moment, priests are being looked at negatively - because of all the abuse and clericalism. Pope Francis once said, "Priests are like airplanes. Thousands rise and descend, but as soon as one collapses, the newspapers are full.

As a young priest, I worked for nine years in Lebanon, where I spent four days in prison during the war. In the years that followed, I remained ten years in Egypt - where I was the sad witness to the growth of Muslim extremism; people spit on the ground when they saw a cross - and fifteen years in Sudan. There, every Sunday, I read mass in one of the many refugee camps around Khartoum. There were people from Southern Sudan who had fled the civil war. The conditions were mostly inhumane, without running water and electricity.

Via Syria to Bethlehem

In 2011 I was asked to go to Syria. Because it was war, I couldn't go to Homs, where the two other Dutch Jesuits lived: Frans van der Lugt and Michael Brenninkmeijer. When I was 75, I moved to Bethlehem, to work among the Palestinians and to start youth retreats. I live here with an American Jesuit who is also a priest for 50 years this year. We live behind the wall, among the Palestinians, in constant tension and without much hope for the future.

After this story not only the question may arise 'How did you stay alive', but rather 'Do you still believe in the Good Message of the Gospel? What do I have to offer people who live with violence or in war situations? People who live on the edge of human existence, and die of hunger or lack of medical care, as in Sudan?

The resurrection faith keeps going

The experience I want to and must write about after 50 years of being a priest in countries of violence and poverty is that the Gospel and the resurrection faith are often the only support and joy that keeps people going. This gives them the strength not to drown in despair.

In 2006 I was 50 years old as a Jesuit. Three sisters and two brothers-in-law came to Sudan to celebrate with me. Of course I took them to the camps around Khartoum, for Sunday Mass. The small chapel with mud walls and a roof of palm blisters, was filled to the brim. The altar boys (including girls) were in full dress. The group of dancing girls were dressed in traditional costume and there was a choir with a drum and a trumpet. We prayed, sang, danced and listened to the sermon, which was regularly interrupted by applause. There were many children, fully disciplined, under the supervision of a 'matron'.

The family was so surprised that afterwards they said, "The people here have nothing, only the joy. We in the Netherlands have everything our hearts desire, but miss the joy."

Every human being is sacred ground

It was 1962 when I left the Netherlands, the time of 'Rich Roman Life'. Today it seems to me more difficult to work as a priest in the Netherlands than to be a missionary among the poor in Sudan, or to witness the resurrection in the midst of violence and terrorism in the Near East.

My joy and gratitude are not the fruit of an easy life, but of a deeply experienced and lived belief in resurrection. Every day, especially during the retreats I give to priests, sisters and young people, I experience that the good is stronger than the evil. We must never lose confidence, and we must not be afraid to raise our hands and open our hearts. With Pope Francis, I would like to say, "To me, every human being is a sacred ground for whom I remove my sandals. Not because of his appearance, the color of his skin, or even his faith or unbelief, but because he was created in the image of God.