Rome Newsroom, Nov 26, 2020 / 05:30 am (CNA).- At an event in Saudi Arabia this week, a Vatican diplomat emphasized the importance of religious freedom and said that “authentic encounter” among religions can take place only in the cont… […]
Rome Newsroom, Nov 24, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Iraqi Christians are trying to face challenges with strength and hope as they continue to rebuild their lives after the Islamic State invaded in 2014, a Chaldean Catholic priest has said.
“It’… […]
Rome Newsroom, Nov 24, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa has entrusted his new mission as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to the prayer of contemplative religious orders in the Holy Land.
Pizzaballa traveled to Galilee and the Sha… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2020 / 06:27 pm (CNA).- The reconstruction of a church in Beirut severely damaged by the massive explosion that rocked the city this summer is a sign of hope to the area’s inhabitants, said a local priest.
Fr. Nicolas Riachy is pastor of the Church of the Savior in Beirut, Lebanon. He told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in a recent interview that the blast not only damaged his church, but caused a local exodus.
“Ten percent of the population of this neighborhood has left, because they can no longer live in their homes,” he said. “I can’t do anything to stop them because I can’t give them security, which is what they want.”
It is becoming more and more difficult to maintain hope, he said, as “those who have money and a foreign passport leave, but we poor people will die here.”
The priest hopes the rebuilding of the church will be a beacon of hope amid difficult circumstances.
On the afternoon of August 4, 2020, a massive explosion ripped through Beirut, as 2.75 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse exploded in the city’s port area.
More than 200 people were killed in the blast, and another 6,000 were injured. More than 250,000 people were left homeless. The blast could be heard in Cyprus, more than 250 km away.
Survivors of the explosion told Aid to the Church in Need that it had left the area economically devastated and the people traumatized. One survivor said it was “worse than a war, because it took out everything at once. The effort of years was lost in seven seconds.”
The incident caused the total destruction of the poor neighborhoods around the port, where migrants and Christian workers who came from the mountains in search of a better life settled.
Riachy said his church lost its roof in the blast. The Greek Melkite church was built in 1890 and is one of the oldest in the city. It has great historical value for Beirut and has a symbolic location on the border between Christian and Muslim neighborhoods.
“We’re a kind of gateway to the Christian quarter,” Riachy said. “To those who want to stay we must give hope, our mission is to bring a light to the darkness we are living in.”
“There’s no Christianity without a cross,” he added. “Our example is Christ. It’s hard to be Christians, but many are still aware that this land is the Holy Land and that we can’t abandon it.”
The church is now undergoing reconstruction work, with the support of Aid to the Church in Need, which has pledged 5 million euros to help Christians in Beirut rebuild after the August explosion.
The cleaning phase of the church is nearly complete, but Riachy said there is still scattered glass and shattered window frames on the sides and entrance of the building.
“If the seasonal rains come it will damage everything. In addition, there’s a crack that must be fixed so that everything doesn’t collapse,” he said.
He voiced gratitude to Aid to the Church in Need for their help, saying the rebuilding efforts would be impossible without outside aid.
“All the homes of my parishioners have their windows and doors destroyed,” the priest said. “And then there’s the economic crisis. The banks won’t let people withdraw their money, now they have nothing. How can they help me rebuild the church?”
Riachy said he hopes the church will help bring hope to the Christians who remain in the city.
“Pope Francis said that a Middle East without Christians is unthinkable,” he added. “I hope this church can continue to be a beautiful testimony of the word of the Lord.”
CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2020 / 09:00 am (CNA).- The United Nations human rights commissioner has called for international attention and aid in Mozambique in response to an escalating series of attacks by Islamist militant groups.
“The situation… […]
Rome Newsroom, Nov 12, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- When 90-year-old Cardinal Christian Tumi was interrogated in captivity by armed separatists in Cameroon last week, he calmly told his captors that he had been called by God to preach only what is true… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2020 / 05:32 pm (CNA).- A conflict between the Ethiopian government and the government of Ethiopia’s Tigray region must halt immediately, or it will destroy more lives and turn the country into a “failure,” Ethiopia’s Catholic bishops have said.
“We, the Catholic Bishops of Ethiopia urge both parties to immediately stop the armed conflict and start peaceful dialogue for the benefit of the people and resolve their differences in the spirit of understanding, mutual respect and trust,” Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel of Addis Ababa said in a Nov. 9 statement from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Ethiopia.
The bishops said they were saddened by the armed conflict and the resulting deaths, displacement of people, and destruction of property, Catholic News Service reported.
“Conflict between brotherly people does not help anyone. Instead, it destroys lives of innocent people and it is an act that will turn our country into a failure and (create) extreme poverty,” the Ethiopian bishops said. They regretted the failure of truce negotiation efforts by religious leaders, elders and others.
In the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray, the regional government is run by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The group once dominated the ruling coalition of Ethiopia but felt marginalized by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s political changes after he took office in 2018. He dissolved the ruling coalition and merged its ethnicity-based regional parties into a single party, the Prosperity Party, which the TPLF refused to join.
Tigrayan leaders have said they were unfairly targeted by political purges and allegations of corruption. They have argued that Abiy’s postponement of national elections due to coronavirus have ended his mandate as a legitimate leader, BBC News reports.
On Nov. 4 Abiy announced a military offensive in response to an alleged attack on a military base in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray. The prime minister aims to arrest the regional government heads and to destroy its military arsenal.
Several hundred people have been killed on both sides of the conflict. Each side blames the other for the conflict, and it is difficult to confirm their claims, the Associated Press has said. Tigray’s communications have been almost completely cut off.
Over 200,000 Ethiopian refugees are expected to cross into Sudan, and thousands have already entered Sudan’s border provinces. The United Nations and Sudanese partners are preparing to aid 20,000 refugees.
Prime Minister Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for resolving a border conflict with Eritrea, rejected pleas for dialogue. The U.K. and the African Union, among others, have advocated for de-escalation.
Abiy has said there would be no negotiations until the end of the “law enforcement operation.”
In September the TPLF held elections despite a nationwide ban on them. The Ethiopian government declared the elections illegal. An emergency session of the national parliament last week voted to dissolve the Tigrayan government, charging that it had “violated the constitution and endangered the constitutional system.”
Tigray has had poor relations with Eritrea, which is on the region’s northern border. Tigrayan leader Debretsion Gebremichael has accused Eritrea of taking military action in support of the Ethiopian government, but he gave no proof, and Eritrea’s government rejected the claim, Reuters reports.
Tigray shares a western border with Sudan, which has put more than 6,000 troops on the border.
The conflict has prompted fears of regional destabilization as well as instability, and even civil war, within Ethiopia. Ethiopia has some 110 million people, the second-most populous country in Africa. It has many ethnic groups and other regions that desire more autonomy.
Rome Newsroom, Nov 11, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- In response to reports that militants linked to the Islamic State had beheaded more than 50 people in northern Mozambique, a Catholic charity is sending emergency aid to the affected diocese.
Local media … […]
Rome Newsroom, Nov 6, 2020 / 05:35 am (CNA).- Cardinal Christian Tumi, who was kidnapped by gunmen Thursday evening in Cameroon’s Northwest Region, has been freed.
“Glory be to God. Cardinal Tumi has been freed by the Separatist fighters. … […]
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 26, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- As Lebanon continues to deal with fallout from the massive August explosion that devastated parts of the capital, Beirut, advocates for Lebanese Christians call for continued U.S. aid and collaboration with local NGOs, while one State Department official says that conversations about additional aid have stalled.
On Oct. 19, the Daily Star, an English-language newspaper in Beirut, reported that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Lebanese President Michel Aoun by phone that the United States would send additional aid to rebuild areas damaged by the port explosion in Beirut earlier this year.
An official State Department read-out of the call between the leaders did not mention such a pledge, and a spokesperson for the State Department did not return a request for comment on whether Pompeo had pledged additional aid to the president, but an official within the State Department said conversations about a second round of aid have stalled within the government.
Lebanese authorities attributed the Aug. 4 blast in the port of the country’s capital and largest city to “highly explosive material stored unsafely.” The explosion left 190 dead, more than 6,500 injured, and three people missing, as well as approximately $15 billion in direct damage.
In the aftermath of the explosion, the United States pledged more than $17 million in initial aid for Lebanon for food assistance and medical supplies. Some advocates called for additional relief funds in response to the disaster, pointing to approximately 300,000 people officials said have been displaced from their homes. Al Jazeera reported 70,000 homes were among the buildings damaged in the explosion.
Advocates for Lebanese Christians told CNA that funds dedicated specifically to reconstruction were vital, because much of the damage occurred in neighborhoods with a Christian majority. If these Christians are unable to return to their homes, it could shift the demographics of the city—and the country—by destabilizing the Christian community there.
They also stressed that working with established partners in NGOs would safeguard funds from Lebanon’s corrupt government.
A State Department spokesperson told CNA that the U.S. government provided more than $750 million to Lebanon last year, and that the United States has provided more than $41.6 million in supplemental foreign assistance and redirected $11.5 million in USAID Mission funding to help Lebanon respond to the COVID-19 crisis. According to data from the Department of State, the United States has provided more than $4 billion total in foreign assistance to Lebanon since 2010.
“American assistance to Lebanon saves lives, strengthens our strategic partners, ensures key services reach the Lebanese people and refugees, and counters Hezbollah’s narrative and influence,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The spokesperson added that the U.S. government “directly supported the Lebanese people in the aftermath of the port explosion,” by providing “immediate humanitarian assistance to meet emergency needs,” including emergency food, shelter, and medical assistance.
“We continue to work with our partners in Beirut to identify additional recovery needs,” the spokesperson said.
Despite those remarks, a senior state department official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told CNA that discussions about an additional round of reconstruction aid have stalled, over concerns from some U.S. officials that the funds would end up in the hands of the Lebanese government, which has close ties to Hezbollah. The group, a political party in Lebanon, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
“The idea that any aid to Lebanese Christians confers a benefit on Hezbollah is deeply problematic,” the official said. “That’s not the policy of the administration or the [State] Department or Secretary Pompeo.”
“Lebanon’s political leaders need to end their association with Hezbollah. The U.S. won’t achieve this end by withholding aid to blast victims,” the official told CNA.
Toufic Baaklini, president of In Defense of Christians, told CNA it is crucial for American relief funds to go directly to local NGOs and not through the Lebanese government due to its corruption and ties to Hezbollah.
“We want to make sure that people on the ground are receiving the aid and rebuilding their homes,” Baaklini said, adding that he thinks the administration is committed to finding the best way of getting aid “directly to the people.”
Baaklini said he hopes the aid comes through soon because “the winter season is coming.”
Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn told CNA in an interview that following the blast “the need is great.”
“We don’t want to lose the special character of Lebanon,” if Christians are forced by circumstance to leave, Mansour said.
“It’s very clear to every Christian of the Middle East: outside of Lebanon they are minorities,” he added. “They don’t have those freedoms in other parts of the Middle East.”
Mansour said he thinks the administration seems “to understand the importance of helping Lebanon even though Hezbollah is present in the government.”
“They’ve been very careful; nobody wants to fund a government that has close ties to Hezbollah, I don’t blame them,” Mansour said. “But at the same time, they haven’t let the good people of Lebanon feel like they have to swim on their own.”
Marc Malek, the founder of Conquest Capital Group and an advocate for Lebanese Christians, said the matter is of great importance to Lebanese Americans and Christians in the United States.
“We’ve been trying to make a push here as Christians and Lebanese Americans to dedicate some of that money for shelter,” Malek said, arguing that in some cases a small refurbishment can make a home damaged by the blast habitable again.
Robert Nicholson, president and executive director of The Philos Project, told CNA that he would urge a “robust response to the crisis in Lebanon.”
“There’s actually an opportunity in Lebanon to do some of these things we could never have accomplished in other countries,” Nicholson said, pointing to the country’s “historical, cultural, and religious connection to the West.”
Nicholson called for a “creative and strategic” response to the crisis, “using our dollars to help our friends.”
“There is a way for the US government to spend our aid—which we should give—but to do it in a way that actually advances our mission in the country, which is to raise up the good guys and disempower the bad guys,” Nicholson said. “We need to be clever.”
© Catholic World Report