In this spring of 2022, Brother Dominique-Marie Cabaret strolls for the last time between the labyrinthine shelves of the prestigious library of the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem (Ebaf). Outside, the two-hectare park surrounded by high stone ramparts, where he so often walked, has already become green again, and the square tower which dominates this temple of knowledge to which he devoted so many years stands, immutable, a few hundred meters from the iconic Damascus Gate and the Arab part of the city.
Sad and bitter, Brother Cabaret caresses the rare and sacred books sheltered in the half-light, while recalling the painful weeks he has just experienced, against a backdrop of personal or generational rivalries between monks. But also internal and political wars. Brothers “Arabic Orientalists” against those more “pro-Israel”, “bible scholars” against “archaeologists”. Crossed by quarrels of chapels, his dear school has nothing to envy to the twilight atmosphere of “Name of the Rose”, the famous novel by Umberto Eco.
A few days earlier, the sentence fell, brutal and without appeal. He must leave Jerusalem. The Filipino brother Gerard Francisco III, grand master of the Dominican order and its supreme leader in the world, came to tell him in person during an interview as expeditious as it was icy. Dominique-Marie Cabaret was served with his return to his province of origin, in Toulouse.
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