Saints Cosmos and Damian, pray for the persecuted church in Syria.
Local Catholic leaders
described the hardship faced by Syrian refugees in Lebanon and the
destabilizing effect the conflict is having on the country.
The President of the
Lebanese organization Caritas, Monsignor Simon Faddoul, explained to
international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the
American threats to attack Syria led temporarily to a rise in the numbers of
refugees in Lebanon.
Speaking on Friday,
Sept. 20th, he noted, "Now that the military strike has not
materialized after all, the number of refugees have returned to their original
level."
The Lebanese
government, Faddoul continued, estimates the number of Syrians in Lebanon at
about 1.4 million.
Of these, 1.1 million are
refugees, while the rest had already been in the country when hostilities broke
out.
"If it comes to
the decisive battle for Damascus, there will be a refugee disaster," Msgr.
Faddoul said.
The Caritas head also
explained how the large number of refugees in Lebanon was already having a
destabilizing effect in the country: "The latest report of the World Bank
showed what a disastrous effect the Syrian war was having on Lebanese society,
security and economy."
According to the most
recent estimates by the World Bank, the loss suffered by the Lebanese economy
due to the conflict will amount to $7.5 billion by the end of the coming year.
On top of this,
Faddoul lamented the social and security problems, "In this respect, the
future is a somber one."
This priest of the
Maronite Church stressed, however, that the number of those refugees who
refused to register with the United Nations had fallen "considerably."
"Many have
recognized that registration is the only way to obtain medical aid. Whereas
previously 40 per cent failed to register, the figure is now 20 per cent,"
according to Faddoul.
To date, Caritas has
cared for close to 125,000 refugees in the country, and this has been partly
thanks to support from Aid to the Church in Need.
About 10,000 of these
were Christians, while the remainder were Muslims.
Faddoul was also
concerned about the approach of winter. "We need everything: blankets,
heating oil, clothing, food, hygiene articles, financial assistance for housing
and so on. Our resources are never enough. But we are doing our best with what
we can get."
Sister Georgette
Tannoury from the Community of the Good Shepherd (Bon Pasteur) also expressed
her concern to ACN about the destabilizing effects of the Syrian conflict.
Also supported by ACN,
she heads a walk-in clinic for refugees in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. The
clinic looks after more than 150 Syrians daily, mostly women and children.
"The number of
Syrians is very large," according to Sister Georgette. "Children fill
the streets and run between the cars begging. We've never experienced so many
robberies and other crimes in the country as in the present year.”
“The result is
increasing frustration in Lebanon in the face of the many refugees. One lady reported
to me that she was afraid of sending her daughter out onto the street to do the
shopping."
Unlike in Jordan, for
example, Lebanon has no reception camps, and so the refugees are spread
throughout the country. "They often live in garages. Families who lived in
large houses in Syria suddenly find themselves in a room with 15 other people.
Their children reject this and prefer to live on the streets."
The hardship,
according to Sister Georgette, often forces people to take desperate
measures.
"One woman told
me that her husband had forced her into prostitution to feed the family.
Another father had sold his 13-year-old daughter to a 60-year-old man to get
money.”
“I hear stories like
these all day long. May God take pity on His people. I thank Aid to the Church
in Need for their support. We will continue to help the poorest of the
poor."
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the
Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports
the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.
ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul
II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work
in over 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including
providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church
buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since
the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed
worldwide.
For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org or call
718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street,
PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384. www.churchinneed.org
