Communique, Fall 2022

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Fall 2022

Issue 4

UNITAS: Bringing Help and Hope to Christians in Lebanon DEAR FRIENDS, The last time I wrote in the pages of Communiqué, we were planning a Unitas: Come, Rebuild My Church pilgrimage to Lebanon with a few of our friends and supporters. As I write today, on October 19, the pilgrimage has already occurred, and it was a resounding success.

In Lebanon, we visited several places which held the great natural beauty for which Lebanon is famous: the stunning heights and cliffs of the Qadisha Valley (the Holy Valley), with its rock-hewn grottos and centuries-old monasteries; the monastery and tomb of the simple, holy 19th century Maronite monk St. Charbel (1828-1898), to whose intercession more than 29,000 miracles have now been attributed. We met with the head of Lebanon’s Maronites, Béchara Boutros Cardinal Raï, who is Patriarch of Antioch, but resides in Bkerke, Lebanon, not far outside of Beirut. We were able to meet with him at the end of a Sunday evening Rosary at his summer residence in the Qadisha Valley.

We also saw scenes of suffering and deprivation: the aftermath of the devastating August 4, 2020 explosion that rocked the port of Beirut — so large, it was felt in several neighboring countries — with thousands of people, two years later, still living in half-ruined houses, among decimated commercial districts, with no jobs, few resources and little hope.

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, our Unitas initiative is helping some of these people, with water purification devices, groceries and educational funding for their children. Still, many thousands of educated Lebanese with the means to leave the country have done so, leaving an intellectually and financially impoverished society, especially among the Christian population.

We cannot sit idly by and let this hemorrhage of talent and treasure from a land where Christ Himself once walked, taught and performed miracles, continue. Lebanon is a land which for 2,000 years has nurtured the Christian faith, and we are committed to doing all we can to see that it continues to do so.

Besides Israel, Lebanon is, at present, the only Middle Eastern country where Christianity can be practiced with complete freedom. However, Christians, a century ago comprising 78% of the Lebanese population, are now only 34% — barely a third. And more Christians are leaving each year.

Perhaps the high point of our pilgrimage was a meeting with leading members of Orthodox Churches in Lebanon.

During a wonderful dinner of traditional Lebanese food, we spoke about building bridges of collaboration between Lebanese Catholics and Orthodox to assist the Christians of the country. We have tentatively agreed to work together to put on a special day focused on Lebanon and the Christian presence in the country in September 2023.

We were privileged to meet with Cardinal Bechara Boutros Raï, the Lebanese Catholic Patriarch of the Lebanese Maronite Church. He welcomed us with open arms and explained to us some of the challenges he and his flock are facing. “We are grateful for the support you are giving to our people,” the Patriarch told me. “The fact that you have come here in person to visit with us and see our situation means a great deal to all of us.” And so I pass on the words of Patriarch Raï, who has led the Lebanese Church for more than 11 years, and we ask for your prayers, and, if possible, for your support. In Christ, Editor, Inside the Vatican

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Unitas fall Pilgrimage to lebanon “Extraordinary on SEvEral diffErEnt lEvElS” n BY CHRISTOPHER HART-MOYNIHAN During a visit to Lebanon in September, Urbi et Orbi’s “Friends of Lebanon” delegation was received by Patriarch Bechara Poutros Raï, the head of the Catholic Maronites in Lebanon. In the photos, Patriarch Raï greets Joseph Raguso of Cleveland, Ohio, one of our “Friends of Lebanon” members, in the presence of Tony Assaf, who was born in Lebanon and is one of the group’s advisors

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uring the second half of September 2022, Urbi et Orbi Communications carried out our first pilgrimage to Lebanon. We brought 10 “Friends of Lebanon” from the United States to the land of the Tall Cedars from September 17 to 25 as a part of our Unitas: Friends of Lebanon initiative.

The pilgrimage to Lebanon was conceived with several goals in mind. We wanted to give our pilgrims a sense of the work that Friends of Lebanon has been doing in this country, which has experienced profound tragedy and suffering over the past several years.

We also wanted the pilgrims to get an idea of the social, political, and economic challenges Lebanon is facing — the continued coexistence of Christians and Muslims within the country being one of the most significant of these.

Finally, and most importantly, we wanted to offer all of the pilgrims an opportunity to go on a spiritual journey through visits to ancient sites of Christian pilgrimage such as the Qadisha Valley, places of Biblical significance such as the Cedars of Lebanon, and sites of popular devotion such as the tomb of St. Charbel.

By all three measures, the pilgrimage was a great success.

Perhaps the thing that most stood out for all who were present was the kindness of the Lebanese people. It is difficult to put into words the openness, hospitality, and generosity that we experienced during our time in Lebanon. As we were welcomed into people’s homes and into their lives, we began to understand the “Lebanese spirit” — a 2

spirit present in the towns and villages where Christians, Muslims and Druze have lived side by side for centuries, in the Qadisha Valley cave monasteries where Maronite monks fled to escape Ottoman oppression, and in the city of Beirut, where bullet holes from the country’s civil war of the 1970s and 1980s dot the facades of historic buildings and fashionable hotels, and where cafes use back-up generators to keep the lights on during daily blackouts.

After a first afternoon and evening in Beirut, and an early morning Maronite-rite Mass, we drove up to the Qadisha Valley in northern Lebanon, where we stayed for three nights. “Qadisha” is a word meaning “holy” in Aramaic, which was the lingua franca of the Near East for many centuries, and the language Jesus knew and spoke.

On our first night in the north, we were able to attend a Rosary service at the summer residence of the Maronite Catholic Patriarch, Cardinal Boutros Bechara Raï, in Dimane. At the end of the service, the pilgrims met Patriarch Raï and we gave him a short update on our work to support Christians in Lebanon over the past several years.

He told us, “Thank you very much and please continue.

This work is very important.”

The following day, we drove down into the valley, a massive, imposing geological wonder that has served as a place of refuge for generations of Maronite Catholic faithful. At the St. Elisha Monastery, we saw a small room, carved out of the rock, where several Maronite Patriarchs lived during the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Church

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in Lebanon was being persecuted by the Ottoman Empire.

The son of the illustrious Charles Malik, who served as The next day, we toured the Kahlil Gibran museum in the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations town of Bsharri and visited the Cedars of God, which grow and participated in the drafting of the Universal Declarahigh on the slopes of the mountains above the valley. tion of Human Rights in 1948, the younger Malik gave us The awe-inspiring landscapes of the Qadisha Valley his thoughts on the future of Lebanon and told us he would and the surrounding area gave us a new understanding of be happy to mark the 75th anniversary of the drafting of the and appreciation for the Maronite Church, which was Universal Declaration with us at next year’s Unitas event. based in and around the valley for so many centuries, and We hope you can make plans to join us in September whose saints and hermits have 2023 in Lebanon for this gathtruly made this a “holy” valley. ering.

The second phase of our pilOn the final day of our pilgrimage was centered on Beirut grimage, Fr. Jim O’Neal, one of and holy sites in the surroundour pilgrims, celebrated Mass at ing area. Before we entered the tomb of St. Charbel, perhaps Beirut, we stopped at the Orthothe holiest site in Lebanon, after dox Monastery of Our Lady of an illuminating and unexpected Nourieh (Our Lady of the encounter with Fr. Louis Matar, Light), a popular Orthodox pilthe priest who has registered the grimage site overlooking the many thousands of miracles Mediterranean Sea, followed attributed over the years to by lunch in the ancient seaside St.Charbel’s intercession. city of Byblos. The following Meeting in the home of a Lebanese family, and, below, a dinner What stayed with us, and day was focused on visits to with our pilgrims, were these discussion in Beirut, Lebanon recipients of the “short-term unexpected things: an offer of help” that Unitas: Friends of sharing a meal in the officer’s Lebanon had provided followclub of the Lebanese Army next ing the August 4, 2020 Beirut to the Cedars of Lebanon; being port explosion. This help was in invited to share tea in a family’s the form of food boxes, basic home in Byblos, and meet their necessities and water purichildren (they gave us a gift of fiers, which recipients told us honeycomb from their farm in had made a huge difference in their home village, and hometheir daily lives. made Lebanese cake for Hearing the testimonies of dessert); meeting a father and people who continue to strugson, both doctors, who have gle, month after month, to probeen running a hospital in vide basic necessities for their families and to send their northern Lebanon for the past 20 years, and learning about children to school was eye-opening and greatly moving for the importance of healthcare in Lebanon during the current all who were present. Seeing the great need that ordinary crisis. people are still finding themselves in reinforced our comMultiple pilgrims highlighted these “encounters” as the mitment to continue the work of supporting Lebanon. most remarkable part of the time in Lebanon, and all 10 of Another concrete way for us to support Lebanon, and them have now become advisors to the Friends of Lebanon the Christian community there, presented itself that project. One pilgrim wrote: “The people and their country evening, at a dinner held with the Guardians of the Holy have left deep impressions in my heart and mind. TrouFire, a gathering of lay Orthodox leaders in Lebanon. At bling sights of areas severely impacted by the explosion this meeting, the Guardians proposed a collaboration — two years ago lie in contrast to the magnificent beauty of an event in September 2023, to raise awareness about the the hills and the blue sea surrounding much of Lebanon. traditions of the ancient Christian Churches in Lebanon The history of people of faith was almost palpable in and the rest of the Middle East. We agreed to hold such an monasteries we visited. As the days move further along, I event as a Unitas gathering, where Catholics and recall moments, visits and human exchanges that hold Orthodox will come together and discuss critical issues. great meaning. Faces and places come to mind and I am Also speaking at this event will be Habib Malik, an moved to prayer. The pilgrimage may have actively ended, Associate Professor at American Lebanese University, but the journey in prayer and faith with unforgettable peowith whom our group had dinner the subsequent evening. ple still lives.”l 3

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