Christian Lebanon

Sacred ground in the Holy Land is getting bombed in the Middle East war, and the daily rocket count and response coverage is largely missing the huge underlying story of what this is doing to the people in these towns of Lebanon. 

The Christian community is under shock. To the last man and woman, it was always in favour of the country’s total independence and for this it has fought against Syria and paid a hefty price. With the exception of Hariri’s assassination, since Syria’s pullout last year, all murders involved Christian leaders.

Christians have always called for Hezbollah’s disarmament, but because of Syria’s influence have failed to achieve it. They know that as long as Hezbollah’s armed militias are allowed to exist, the agreements and the authority of the state will be flouted—which is what happened.

Now they have to live with the bombs or find refuge in some other country. Then again Christians cannot find refuge in neighbouring countries because they are all Muslim. For many, safety is in Europe and America. But unlike those who do go to Muslim countries, when Christians opt for the West it is a one-way journey and few come back.

AsiaNews has a good article here. It’s a crisis within a crisis.

The Gospel of today’s Liturgy (Mt 15:21-28) starts: “At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” As I write this, Christians are probably withdrawing from that region, because Tyre is presently under attack.

As one Maronite Bishop recently called out, “Are there no peacemakers?”