Speech of Pr. Roland Tomb, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, at the Centennial Launching Ceremony of Hôtel-Dieu de France on May 5, 2021

“Resistance does not only consist in carrying arms: in this case, nowadays, resistance consists especially in not carrying suitcases.”

Tonight, I will speak to you of miracles.

Your Excellency the Minister, Your Excellencies the Ambassadors, Reverend Father Rector, Dear colleagues and friends.

This hospital holds God and France in its name and its genes. This double descent must oblige us. Its conception as well as its birth were miracles, since apparently nothing could reconcile its progenitors. In fact, the pioneers and builders put their energy and determination but nothing would have been possible without the anticlerical France of the time: their efforts unlikely but combined, already implemented to build the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Engineering, resurrected the construction site of Hotel-Dieu de France at the end of the Great War, after the looting and destructions, like the Rector reminded us of in his speech. We can see it in the archival photos, we saw it in the movie, the alliance between the sword and the aspergillum was never as successful. The Republic and the Church (we spoke pejoratively of skullcaps under the Third Republic) leaned together, like good fairies, over its cradle. 

Half a century later, the way this hospital resisted during civil war is also a miracle, and I say it for the first time publicly and emotionally: I was probably among the first wounded it welcomed. Hotel-Dieu de France saved my life. By fulfilling its duty, by braving the dangers, this hospital did not only show resilience, but it showed real resistance facing human fury and occupants relentlessness.

In the middle of the war, in 1984, a man stood up, Jean Ducruet. He refused defeatism, stood against his own companions who wanted to close the university, offered to France to run himself Hotel-Dieu de France that was bleeding out. The bet he made that day is also a miracle. He signed the notorious emphyteutic lease with the French government: I replicated its preamble in facsimile in the book you are holding in your hands and that I was thrilled to make with my accomplice Christian Taoutel. The terms of this contract are unequivocal: Hotel-Dieu is the hospital for practice of the Faculty of Medicine. I am saying it and repeating it because a few years ago still we were hearing some ghastly spirits asking themselves: What business is it of the Dean? What business is it of the Rector? Facts are stubborn: this hospital was the fruit of Father Cattin’s will and determination, chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine, who wanted for his institution a hospital for practice of its own. 61 years later, by means of an agreement between the French government and Father Ducruet, Rector of a centralized and renewed Saint-Joseph University, the vocation of Hotel-Dieu was explicitly reminded. To the miracle of the foundation echoed the miracle of the refoundation.

-To respect the engagements endorsed by the builders and the French government, this hospital will remain academic or it will cease to exist.

This was unequivocally reminded by the Rector.

-Because the men lying down oblige the men standing up, HDF will respect its social vocation in service of all the sufferers, particularly the most disadvantaged or it will cease to exist.

-We will defend the Francophonie – ungrateful task among all – sometimes more and better than the French themselves: this hospital will remain a living witness of francophone medicine in our country or it will cease to exist.

-Strong thanks to its roots, now centenarians, it will resolutely have to look to the future, be at the forefront of the innovations to remain a reference center and a center of excellence, or it will cease to exist.

I was saying it in the beginning, the birth of this hospital is a miracle. Its endurance, its sustainability, and its development despite all the indignities that our country has known during a century, is also a miracle. For this daily miracle, I would like to thank the actors, young and old, unknown or famous, doctors, residents, interns, nurses, administratives, personnel. In addition, I express the ardent hope, Your Excellency, the Ambassador of France, that the renegotiation of the emphyteutic lease is initiated as soon as possible, so that this miracle continues.

However, citizens wait a greater miracle: two years ago, the Lebanese state celebrated its centenary too. If Hotel-Dieu de France is our home, we have a duty towards the real home that unites us all, our country, our Lebanon. Everyone remembers, my dear friends, the immense hope that rose on October 17 2019. I see this sea of people, the fleets of flags, along with these white coats who patrolled on foot almost daily. Everyone remembers, Your Excellency the Ambassador, of the extraordinary energy of the president Macron in 2020 to help us. Unfortunately, our hopes fell. And therefore, the disillusionment is even greater. Nevertheless, we will not indulge in defeatism, we will remain standing. Our hopes, as I was saying, flew away, however, our expectancy remain clinging to our bodies and hearts. Unfortunately, we will never be able to get through this on our own. Simply because the Lebanese is not master of its own decisions; national will has been confiscated.

Which is why, I call all the friends of Lebanon, and you too Your Excellencies the Ambassadors to never grow weary of us, of our cause, of the Lebanon-message so that it will not become an empty-slogan.

I call the Lebanese diaspora, as well as the ones in the country, not to give up. I think of the migration of the Lebanese, particularly of the migration of doctors of which we have talked a lot. Weariness and defeatism that widespread in epidemics are even deadlier than COVID-19. Panic revealed itself being more contagious and pernicious than the virus.

Let us resist to all these demons, yes let us resist to all these demons for resistance does not only consist in carrying arms: in this case, nowadays, resistance consists especially in not carrying suitcases.

Yes, Hope will always have the last word.

Let us not stop believing in miracles.

Long live Hôtel-Dieu de France! Long live France! And above all, long live Lebanon!