so that the will of God might be accomplished in them and through them". This vow led to the formal foundation of the Badaliya prayer association in 1947. Encouraged by Mary Kahil and with the permission of Pope Pius XII, he became a Melkite Greek Catholic on February 5, 1949, which meant he still remained in the Catholic Church, but was no longer affiliated with the Roman Rite. Instead the Melkite Church consists of Arab Catholics and its Byzantine Rite liturgy is celebrated in Arabic. This indirectly allowed Massignon to be closer to Arab Christians and Muslims alike. As a Greek Catholic, he could be ordained as a priest although he was married (yet it was not for this reason that he had had himself transferred to Greek Catholicism). He was ordained by Bishop Kamel Medawar on January 28, 1950, with the permission of Patriarch Maximos IV, despite some opposition from the Holy See, which, however, finally accepted his priestly ordination. Being a priest meant for Massignon offering his life in substitution for others, especially for the Muslims. Political commitment after World War II After World War II, while still remaining active as a scholar, his focus of attention shifted to political action to help Muslims and Arab Christians. In this he followed the model of Mahatma Gandhi and his principles of non-violent action (ahimsa and satyagraha). (He was also president of the Amis de Gandhi association.) He made it clear that he did not hope for success in all his areas of action, but that, first and foremost, he wanted to bear witness to Truth and Justice, just as Jesus Christ had done. He committed himself to the following (in chronological order): for the Arabs living in Palestine (who were displaced by the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948); he believed in peaceful coexistence of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Palestine Against the French government's removal of the Sultan Sidi Muhammad of Morocco in 1953, promoted by two self-styled Muslim religious leaders, El Glaoui and El Kittani; he was supported in this by two committees, France-Islam and the newly founded France-Maghreb, the latter having among its members François Mitterrand, François Mauriac, André Julien For the amnesty of political prisoners in Madagascar, as president of the Comité pour l'amnistie aux condamnés politiques d'outre-mer. The committee finally reached this amnesty For a peaceful solution of the colonial tensions in