Francis is now making an urgent appeal to all Lebanese politicians "so that a president of the republic is elected without delay and the institutions return to their normal function in order to carry out the necessary reforms and guarantee the country's role as an example of peaceful coexistence between the different religions".

In this context, Francis expressed his hope that this "glimmer of peace" could lead to a ceasefire on all other fronts. The release of the Israeli hostages and access to humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population are particularly close to his heart.

Read More

Speaking during a press briefing before the first anniversary of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel, Khairallah stressed that private agendas have overshadowed fundamental values such as human dignity and freedom.

Khairallah voiced frustration at the world's silence in the face of ongoing hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.

He remarked, "The world is quiet, it doesn't say anything… It even gives the green light for this violence because there are too many interests at the political and economic level".

These private interests "have nothing to do with our Christian values" he added.

Two-state solution

Khairallah also spoke of the potential role Pope Francis and Vatican diplomacy could play in fostering peace. He referenced Lebanon's historical significance as a model of religious coexistence.

Since 1948, the Holy See has consistently backed a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"This resolution has always been rejected up until today by the State of Israel, by Israeli politicians" Khairallah said. He insisted that many Israeli citizens want peace and demonstrate for peace. However, "interests have the upper hand".

The bishop also criticised Western nations, particularly the US, for not supporting those suffering in the Middle East.

"I think that this is a message from the synod that we are participating in this year: that the people who are oppressed should have the possibility, the right to decide concerning their future and their destiny" he said.

Peace through forgiveness

Drawing from personal experience, Khairallah highlighted the importance of forgiveness as a path to peace. He recounted how, at the age of five, his parents were killed in their home.

His aunt, a nun, taught him and his siblings to forgive their parents' killers and to "pray for those who killed [their parents] and to seek to forgive throughout your lives".

Khairallah believes that true peace can come only when individuals across all cultures and confessions work together, rather than being driven by political and economic agenda.

He acknowledged the difficulty of forgiveness but insisted it is not impossible, saying "We are capable of forgiving".

Khairallah called on all parties to set aside hatred, vengeance and war, and urged the Church to lead by example, fostering dialogue and mutual respect.

Sources

Crux Now

CathNews New Zealand

Bishop Rafic Nahra, Auxiliary Bishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, expressed deep concern, noting that rockets even hit Nazareth. He warned that Hezbollah may extend attacks to the whole of Galilee, worsening the situation.

Bishop Nahra highlighted that "ordinary people" are suffering across the region, from Gaza to Israel. He stressed the increasing impact on Lebanon, a country already struggling. Religious tourism has significantly declined, leaving Christians particularly vulnerable in the ongoing conflict.

The Israeli military confirmed hitting over 300 Hezbollah targets.

At a press briefing, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari did not rule out a possible ground operation when asked about it. "The actions will continue until we achieve our goal to return the northern residents safely to their homes," he added.

Sources

Asia News

His Beatitude Joseph Absi - the Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and all the East - has agreed to be a guest speaker at Aid to the Church in Need's Night of the Witnesses event on 30 November.

Dominican Sister Majella Dogonyaro from Northern Nigeria and Mr Xavier Bisits, ACN's head of projects for the Middle East, will be joining him.

Bernard Toutounji, the National Director of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Australia & New Zealand, is looking forward to meeting the Patriarch and other invited guests.

They will share their insights and experiences with local ACN members during the event.

"We are overjoyed that these fellow Christians will make the long journey to share with us their experiences and lives of witness.

"In our countries, where we mostly live the faith with such casualness, it can only benefit us to hear from those who deliberately need to choose their faith daily," Toutounji says.

Desperation revealed

The Melkite Patriarch has already made it clear to ACN that Syrian and Lebanese Christians are desperate.

They "no longer have confidence in their country" he says.

Christians in the Middle East are still leaving their homelands despite the Church encouraging them to remain.

He explained that it is increasingly difficult to give hope to Christians in Syria and Lebanon where most of the Melkite faithful live.

"The young are particularly likely to leave," he says.

Between the civil war in Syria, the pandemic and extreme economic hardship in Syria and Lebanon, life has become particularly difficult for Syrian and Lebanese people over the past six years or so, he explains.

Absi says desperation is forcing people to emigrate.

"That's why they are leaving. We did a lot at the beginning to keep them in the country but the situation has not improved.

"We are still doing everything possible to help our faithful, to provide them with essential services. But we cannot replace governments.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel, we do not see a short-term solution. Without support we can no longer convince them to stay."

Between 2016 and 2021, Syria's Christian population decreased from 6.31 percent to 3.84 percent says ACN's 2023 Religious Freedom in the World Report.

What can we in New Zealand do to help?

Absi has some ideas about how the situation in Syria could be improved.

The West could lift the sanctions which are negatively impacting the civilian population, he suggests.

"I think that our friends can exert pressure in one way or another on their governments, and sometimes even on the religious leaders to help in this direction or to ensure that the sanctions are lifted," he says.

Source

• Supplied

The country must remain a "land of tolerance and pluralism" he said as he welcomed Lebanon's Christian patriarchs to the Vatican last Thursday.

Francis prayed the Lord's Prayer in Arabic before he and the patriarchs lit a candle before the tomb of St. Peter.

It was the start of a busy day that included three, closed-door working meetings and a communal lunch.

The patriarchs - who stayed with Francis at his home - joined with him to pray for an end to the economic and political crisis that has thrown their country into chaos and threatened its Christian community. Their visit included an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, featuring prayers and hymns in Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Chaldean. Members of the Lebanese community in Rome and the diplomatic corps filled the pews.

During the service, Francis said Lebanon's vocation was to be an "oasis of fraternity where different religions and confessions meet, where different communities live together, putting the common good before their individual interests."

"Lebanon cannot be left prey to the course of events or (to) those who pursue their own unscrupulous interests," he said. "It is a small yet great country, but even more, it is a universal message of peace and fraternity arising from the Middle East."

Francis also pointed to the Lebanese political class from their responsibility for the mess which their country faces.

"Let there be an end to the few profiting from the sufferings of many! No more letting half-truths continue to frustrate people's aspirations!

"Stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interests and profits!"

He urged the international community to work so Lebanon "will not collapse, but embark upon a path of recovery."

"This will be to everyone's advantage," he said.

"Human relationships cannot be based on the pursuit of partisan interests, privileges and advantages," he insisted to Lebanese people at the service.

"We Christians are called to be sowers of peace and builders of fraternity, not nursing past grudges and regrets, not shirking the responsibilities of the present, but looking instead with hope to the future."

"Let us therefore assure our Muslim brothers and sisters, and those of other religions, of our openness and readiness to work together in building fraternity and promoting peace."

Earlier last week, the Vatican Foreign Minister Paul Gallagher urged other countries to help Lebanon with its "unparalleled economic and financial crisis". The country, must be prevented from descending into chaos to maintain a diversified Middle East, he said.

Lebanon is home to 6 million people, including an estimated 1 million refugees. It is the only Middle Eastern country with a Christian head of state.

Under Lebanon's power sharing agreement drawn up at the end of the 1975-1990 Civil War, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim and the President a Maronite Catholic. However, the ruling class's failure to agree on a new government has left the country without a government since August 2020.

Source

• AP News
• NewsWeek
• The Tablet
• La Croix
• Alarabya News
• Image: AP News

The audience, at which the pope announced a day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon, was held in the San Damaso courtyard of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace and gave him the public contact he thrives on.

Visitors had their temperatures checked as they entered the Vatican and nearly everyone among the audience of 500 or so - including Swiss Guards in ceremonial uniforms - wore masks. The public sat in seats arranged to ensure social distancing. Read more

The trauma is a result of the huge explosion that caused at least 180 deaths and 6,000 injuries.

Many of Beirut's children are in need of psychological support, according to a delegation from the heart of the recovery effort.

Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in a live link to Beirut watched by hundreds on Wednesday (19th August), Youmna Yammine, part of the Youth of Hope group, said the people of Beirut need psychological, spiritual and emotional assistance.

"Help is also being given for mental health because some people need psychological attention at the moment, especially children."

"Here we can see volunteers and NGOs trying to help the children and the adults who went through a traumatic experience. The help is being done by the people, for the people, through NGOs and the help is being done by volunteers."

Yammine says Lebanon's many recent crises have drained its people.

"We had the depreciation of the currency, this affected the income of the Lebanese people, for what used to be a good income is now basically nothing. Prices are rocketing."

"After that came the pandemic ... lots of people have lost their jobs…On August 4th came the explosion - the cherry on the top."

"Lebanese people are really tired," Yammine says.

"They need psychological support and religious support because it has been a lot to deal with in a very short period of time."

AACN project partner Monsignor Toufic Bou-Hadir says despite all the suffering in Beirut there is a lot of hope.

"The convents and churches opened their doors to receive the displaced people to say to them that in spite of this catastrophe, God is here, God is love, and hope is here," he says.

Bou-Hadir also spoke of the help Beirut has received from all over the world, saying: "God always shows us with this solidarity that the light of hope always shines. Beirut will be reborn."

"Thank you to ACN… and all of the benefactors all over the world. We really appreciate this solidarity, this brotherhood, this friendship which lasts forever."

The National Director of ACN (UK), says ACN's supporters responded to the Beirut explosion with an outpouring of generosity.

"We have been overwhelmed by the initial response by our benefactors from Aid to the Church in Need."

Source

• Aid to the Church in Need
• Independent Catholic News
• Wikipedia
• Image: Mirage News

Caritas is one of at least sixteen Catholic organizations that have responded to the Aug. 4 explosion at Beirut's port.

As victims in Beirut face an urgent need for shelter, medication, hygiene kits, and mental health services, these organizations have dispatched medical teams and relief groups to assist with basic necessities.

"Hospitals and doctors had already been reporting shortages of vital medical supplies such as anesthesia, medication and sutures before yesterday's explosion. Amidst these scenes of absolute devastation, we must act now.

Caritas will provide funding to help the Lebanese people in this hour of need," said Julianne Hickey, Director of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.

At least four hospitals were affected by the blast.

Medical staff who survived the blast were treating patients on street sidewalks using flashlights to work because there was no electricity.

Thousands of families who were already facing difficult circumstances due to ongoing conflict, economic instability and the COVID-19 pandemic were affected in yesterday's explosion.

"We need to show our solidarity with the poor and vulnerable in Beirut, who are facing so many urgent and severe challenges.

We must do what we can to ensure that they have the life-saving support they need," said Hickey.

Caritas Lebanon's youth volunteers and staff are actively assisting.

Although the blast damaged their offices, Caritas Lebanon remains committed to supporting vulnerable people in the aftermath of this tragic incident.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is sending a solidarity grant from their Peace in the Middle East fund. Anyone interested in contributing to the support for Lebanon can donate online at caritas.org.nz or over the phone by calling 0800 22 10 22.

Source

• Supplied: Caritas Aotearoa
• catholicnewsagency.com
• Image: catholicnewsagency.com

The prize was established to honor and encourage individuals and organizations that have contributed significantly to interreligious cooperation.

The Japan-based Niwano Peace Prize Committee says the Foundation has been "a visible and committed actor for peace in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East region."

It noted Adyan focuses on both high-level and grassroots engagement.

The Committee says Adyan demonstrates "the inclusive and interfaith values/principles the Niwano Award seeks to recognize."

The Adyan (Arabic for "religions") Foundation was established in 2006.

Since then it has worked to take interreligious dialogue.

This includes "apologetic debates and populist complacency, to a common commitment in what we call ‘religious social responsibility,'" Maronite Father Fadi Daou says.

Daou, who is the president of Adyan Foundation, is one of its five founding members.

Each founder follows a different denomination of Christianity and Islam.

Daou says the prize has moved Lebanon "a firm step further toward its recognition as a world center for dialogue between cultures and religions.

"Peace has a specific name in Lebanon, and that is ‘living-together,'" he added.

An award presentation ceremony will take place in Tokyo on 9 May.

The Adyan Foundation will be given an award certificate, a medal and a cash prize of 20 million yen.

Source

• Crux Now
• Cision
• Image: Asia News

Judge Jocelyn Matta ordered them to memorise verses from the holy Qur'an's Surat Al-Omran. This chapter glorifies Our Lady and Jesus.

One of the verses featured hails the Virgin Mary as one of the most esteemed women in the world.

The Virgin is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an and she is among only eight people to have a Quranic chapter named after them.

Mary is honoured in several Islamic texts, including the Al-Omran surah, which reads: "And [mention] when the angels said, 'O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds'".

Although Islam does not consider Jesus a deity nor the son of God, it holds Christ in high esteem. He is regarded as Prophet Muhammad's precursor and one of God's most prominent messengers.

Islam considers Jesus a Messiah. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad came to complete Jesus' message, rather than to refute it.

Judge Matta said her sentence aimed to educate the young men on Islam's reverence for the Virgin Mary. She said she wanted them to learn about Islam's reverence for the mother of Christ, calling the law 'a school and not just a prison'.

The sentence was so unexpected it has "gone viral" on social media.

This is because Lebanon has strict religious contempt laws: anyone accused of offending a religion or belief can face up to three years in jail.

Lebanon's prime minister Saad Hariri said the sentence was the "epitome of justice" and promotes co-existence between Muslims and Christians together through the "teaching of common ideas".

Source

• Christian Today
• Variety
• Step Feed
• Image: Walsingham

Ten Melkite bishops boycotted the synod meeting, in trying to get Patriarch Gregory III Laham to go.

"I shall not resign," Patriarch Gregory declared, denouncing the boycott.

Without the 10 bishops, the synod in Lebanon had to be postponed as it lacked a quorum.

A Lebanese archbishop and his allies had written to the Vatican Congregation for the Eastern Churches, urging the removal of Patriarch Gregory.

But the Vatican replied that the matter should be handled by the Melkite hierarchy, acting in synod.

Continue reading

Showing off its handiwork daily via Twitter and YouTube, Isis has repeatedly demonstrated that it is much more than a transnational terrorist organisation - rather, it is an entity with sophisticated command, control, propaganda and logistical capabilities, and one that has proven its ability to take and hold strategically critical territory at the heart of the Middle East.

But as world leaders grapple with how to respond to this unprecedented crisis, they must first understand how Isis came to exist.

Principally, Isis is the product of a genocide that continued unabated as the world stood back and watched.

It is the illegitimate child born of pure hate and pure fear - the result of 200,000 murdered Syrians and of millions more displaced and divorced from their hopes and dreams.

Isis's rise is also a reminder of how Bashar al-Assad's Machiavellian embrace of al-Qaida would come back to haunt him.

Facing Assad's army and intelligence services, Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iraq's Shia Islamist militias and their grand patron, Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Syria's initially peaceful protesters quickly became disenchanted, disillusioned and disenfranchised - and then radicalised and violently militant.

The Shia Islamist axis used chemical weapons, artillery and barrel bombs to preserve its crescent of influence.

Syria's Sunni Arab revolutionaries in turn sought international assistance, and when the world refused, they embraced a pact with the devil, al-Qaida.

With its fiercely loyal army of transnational jihadis, al-Qaida once again gained a foothold in the heart of the Middle East.

Fuelled by the hate and fear engendered by images of dismembered children or women suffering from the effects of chemical weapons, disaffected youth from around the world rushed to Syria, fuelling an ever more violent race to the bottom. Continue reading

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: The Telegraph

Tell me the ideology or political view that outweighs the right to life?

Around 9.3 million of Syria's 23 million inhabitants need aid. The number of people who have lost their homes or been forced to flee has now reached 6.5 million in Syria and over 2 million in neighbouring countries.

But behind every single number there is a fellow human being who cherishes life, loves his or her family and simply wants to live in peace.

Shaha and Abboud Ibrahim have two lovely girls and fled from Hasaki in Syria.

When an eighteen day battle raged around them they were trapped. When they and their children emerged into daylight so they could escape buildings continued to burn around them and dead bodies littered the streets.

Abboud told me, "A lot of our neighbours were killed or injured by shrapnel, we saw their bodies - we thought we would be next - the children were starving. We fled into the wild. It took us a month to walk to Lebanon." Continue reading.

Val Morgan is Media Officer for SCIAF, Scotland's Catholic International Development Agency and part of Caritas International. She recently visited Lebanon.

Source: Caritas Blog

Image: Shaha Ibrahim and one of her daughters, Val Morgan/SCIAF

The secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Bishop Jean Laffitte, was commenting on a research project conducted by the Catholic bishops of Lebanon.

The project looked at the realities and challenges of marriages between Christians of different traditions and between a Catholic and a Muslim.

Continue reading

"I want to highlight in particular the fact that the Church is the Church of all peoples, so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents," the Pope said during the hour-long service in St Peter's Basilica, Rome.

"Amid the polyphony of the various voices, she raises a single harmonious song to the living God."

He added: "What makes the Church catholic is the fact that Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity."

The six new cardinals from four different continents represented two Eastern Catholic Churches as well as the Latin rite.

They were: United States Archbishop James M. Harvey, 63, former prefect of the papal household; Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, 72; Indian Archbishop Baselio Cleemis Thottunkal, 53, head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church; Nigerian Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, 68, of Abuja; Colombian Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez, 70, of Bogota; and Philippine Archbishop Luis Tagle, 55, of Manila.

The new Eastern Catholic cardinals received modified versions of the biretta, consistent with the distinctive clerical garb of their churches. Cardinal Rai received the turban-like Maronite tabieh, and Cardinal Cleemis a head covering in a shape reminiscent of an onion dome.

The consistory increased the College of Cardinals to 211 members, 120 of whom are under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.

Though fewer than 24 per cent of the world's Catholic live in Europe, 52 per cent of the voting cardinals still come from that continent, with 23 per cent from Italy.

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Agency

Vatican Information Service

Image: The Hindu

Instead, Pope Benedict XVI has sent Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to neighbouring Lebanon, to meet pastors and members of the various churches present in Syria.

He will visit a number of refugees from that country and will also chair a meeting of Catholic charitable agencies to co-ordinate efforts to help the Syrian people, both within and outside the country.

The Pope personally announced the cancellation of his papal mission to Syria at the end of his general audience on November 7. He said he continued to follow with great concern the "tragic situation of violent conflict" and "untold suffering of many civilians" in the country.

"As I make my prayer to God," he said, "I renew my invitation to the parties in conflict, and to all those who have the good of Syria at heart, to spare no effort in the search for peace and to pursue through dialogue the path to a just coexistence, in view of a suitable political solution of the conflict.

"It is never too late to work for peace!"

The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi, also announced that a donation of $NZ1.2 million given by the recent Synod of Bishops, as well as a personal contribution from the Pope, will be made to assist relief efforts in the region.

The Pope had earlier named seven bishops, including New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan, to the proposed papal mission to Syria.

Sources:

Zenit

Vatican Radio

Image: Catholic Relief Services

The clerics are hoping Benedict's visit will strengthen coexistence and help allay Christian fears over their fate in a region in tumult.

Noting that Muslims and Christians alike have concerns about the rapid changes in the region, Lebanon's Grand Mufti Sheikh Rashid Qabbani said, "We will work to eliminate the concerns that have arisen from the changes in the Arab world".

For his part, Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hasan al-Amin described the pope's trip as a "blessed visit," linking it to late Pope John Paul II's visit to Lebanon in 1997.

"It is a sign that Lebanon has a great place in the Vatican," Amin said.

The scholar said that the impact of the pope's visit would be felt not only by Christians but by all Lebanese.

"The Christians are a major part of the Lebanese structure, and the pope's visit emphasizes coexistence between Muslims and Christians in the country," he said.

In his Angelus message on Sunday the pope said his journey comes "under the sign of peace".

Despite the "dramatic situation" of a region torn by "incessant conflict," people "shouldn't resign themselves to violence or worsening tensions," he added.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, attempted to dispel fears that the trip might be canceled. But Lombardi admitted that the decision to go ahead with the Lebanon trip despite growing tensions is "an act of great courage" for the 85-year old pontiff.

Further emphasising the need for peace, and in the wake of the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three staff members in Libya and the unrest triggered by a U.S.-made amateur film hostile to Islam, the Vatican has decried disrespect toward all religions and deplored all violence as unacceptable.

"Profound respect for the beliefs, texts, outstanding figures and symbols of the various religions are an essential precondition for the peaceful coexistence of peoples," said Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi.

"The serious consequences of unjustified offense and provocations against the sensibilities of Muslim believers are once again evident in these days, as we see the reactions they arouse, sometimes with tragic results, which in turn nourish tension and hatred, unleashing unacceptable violence," Lombardi said September 12 in a written statement that was also translated into Arabic.

Sources

• The Daily Star
• CNS
• Washington Post
• Image: The Daily Star

Patriarch Gregory III Laham will be the first to address the pope during a welcome ceremony and according to his disappeared statement will ask the pope to recognise the Palestinian state, www.lbpapalvisit.com said Thursday.

The statement indicated Gregory will thank the Holy See and its leaders for their "firm and unwavering position on the (Palestinian) cause" and will also ask the Holy See to "recognise the Palestinian state in compliance with the resolutions and decisions of the international community and international law".

The recognition, which the patriarch called a "courageous step of fairness, justice and truth", would allow the Holy See to remain a "pioneer of world justice" and prompt European and other countries to follow.

Recognising the Palestinian state would also "be a guarantee for the solution of most of the very complex problems of the Arab and Muslim world and stop the emigration of Christians from the region", the statement said.

However the publication of the message on the web has been a great embarrassment to Rome. "This is the Patriarch's personal stance," one Vatican source said, explaining that the message should not have been published before the trip.

Vatican Insider reports that it now looks highly unlikely that Gregory III Laham will give the speech.

The Middle East peace process is something close to Pope Benedict's heart.

"My apostolic voyage in Lebanon, and by extension in the Middle East in its entirety, comes under the sign of peace," Benedict told pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

"I am not unaware of the often dramatic situation endured by the populations of this region which has been for too long torn by incessant conflict," Benedict said.

Acknowledging that while finding solutions for the Middle East's problems seems difficult, the Pope urged people not to resign themselves to violence or worsening tensions.

Benedict called for the creation of two states during a visit to the region in 2009.

Sources

• Vatican Insider
• AFP
• Associated Press
• Image: ibpapalvisit.com

The Pope will visit the Lebanese capital from September 14 to 16 to set out his vision for the future of the Eastern Catholic churches of the Middle East.

His visit, under the slogan "I give you my peace", will come 15 years after an historic visit by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

"The excitement is building, particularly among the young people", Father Marwan Tabet, general co-ordinator of the papal visit to Lebanon, told Vatican Radio.

He said the young people — increasingly tempted to leave their homelands, frustrated by decades of tension, war and sometimes persecution — are waiting to hear what the Pope will have to say to them.

"The Church in Lebanon is very diverse in the sense of its belonging to the Catholic Church," said Father Tabet. "Four of the denominations of the Eastern Churches are based in Lebanon: the Maronites, the Melkites, the Syrian Catholic and the Armenian Catholic and these four denominations form a very important presence on the grassroots, political, social and cultural level."

In August, Christians throughout the Middle East will begin a simultaneous prayer marathon in the lead up to the Pope's arrival. From Bkerke to Baghdad, including Gaza's tiny parish of the Holy Family, the same set of prayers will be recited weekly by Maronites, Melkites, Chaldeans, Syrian Catholics and Armenian Catholics, as well as by members of other denominations.

Meanwhile, the situation in the refugee camps on the border with Syria continues to worsen.

"Thousands of refugees are crossing the border trying to escape from the Syrian hell. Most are women and children. The suffering of these people is enormous. Wherever you go you hear cries of despair, hatred, revenge, many feel abandoned by God," Father Simon Faddoul, president of Caritas Lebanon, told AsiaNews.

Sources:

Vatican Radio

AsiaNews

Image: Holy Family Church

The announcement was made in two separate statements by the Presidency of the Republic of Lebanon and the Lebanese Bishop's Office for Communications on the very day the Pope appealed for peace in the Middle East and the Holy Land. The Holy Father made a call to end the violence in the region during the traditional Easter "Urbi and Orbi' message.

During this visit, according to these statements, the Pope will hand over and sign the Post- synodal Apostolic Exhortation for the Middle East in the nation's capital Beirut, during Holy Mass on the 16th September.