"Not just material aid, but compassion
and love for the Syrian people, as well as the closeness of the entire
Catholic Church and the daily prayer of the Pope."
This is the message
delivered by Card. Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor
Unum sent on mission to all the Syrian refugees in Lebanon on behalf of
Pope Benedict XVI.
Yesterday, the Cardinal visited areas of the Bekaa
Valley (eastern Lebanon), where hundreds of thousands of refugees from
Syria are concentrated.
Card. Sara's mission replaces the visit
to Syria by a Holy See Delegation announced during the Synod for the New
Evangelization and cancelled due to the increasingly dangerous
conditions on the ground.
Fr. Simon Faddoul, president of
Caritas Lebanon and organizer of the cardinal's visit, describes the
extraordinary welcome Card. Sarah received: "On arriving in one of the
camps in the Bekaa Valley, he was hailed as a father. A crowd of people
gathered around moved by our delegation. Almost all were Muslims, who
thanked the Vatican, the Pope and the whole Church for their selfless
work. A mother with a child of four months explicitly asked the cardinal
to take the child to save him from this terrible situation."
The
priest adds that hundreds of people, children, women, the elderly have
launched an appeal to the Pope asking him to do everything in his power
to influence the highest political levels and to end the war between the
Syrian army and rebels.
The priest said that the situation in
the refugee camps with hundreds of thousands of refugees is terrible.
The government has not yet regularized spaces and people are building
makeshift shelters with whatever they can find. "The situation - he
continues - is terrible: open sewers, undrinkable water, heaps of
refuse. Nobody has access to electricity and water, and only Caritas has
installed solar panels where possible." "To this day - adds Fr. Faddoul
- Caritas is the only organization active in all refugee camps in the
Bekaa Valley, which in recent months has collected most of the Syrians.
Hopefully our funds will last so we can continue our job".
The
president of Caritas says that the Pope has charged Card. Sarah with two
messages: the first is one of compassion and love for all the people
affected and his prayers. "This love - he explains - was immediately
translated in a concrete way with the delivery of humanitarian aid and
money from many Catholic organizations abroad. Benedict XVI himself
personally contributed the sum of one million dollars."
In addition to
his spiritual and material commitment, the pontiff related to the Syrian
people his attempts to influence the political arena with repeated
appeals that for a resolution to the situation in Syria, which sees the
conflicting interests of various nations.
"As the Cardinal pointed out -
said Fr. Faddoul - the Pope wants to bring attention to the plight of
the Syrian population, which, unfortunately, has been buried by other
interests."
According to Fr. Faddoul the population of Western
countries is distracted because it follows the situation only through
the media, and does not know what is happening on the ground.
As pointed
out several times by the Pope and again by the Cardinal during his
visit, they must share the pain of these people.
On behalf of Caritas
Lebanon, the priest appeals to all readers of AsiaNews: "Open your eyes, your ears and your heart to the suffering of your fellow Syrians."
The
visit of Card. Sarah will end on November 10. Today, he will meet with
representatives of about 20 Catholic charitable agencies operating in
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.
The non-stop meeting, from 9 to
17, will coordinate the humanitarian efforts of the Catholic Church in
the region, including assessment of the projects to be financed with the
donation of Benedict XVI.