Cardinal Robert Sarah, an envoy sent by the pope to
Lebanon in lieu of a Vatican mission to Syria, said that he had
witnessed "unprecedented suffering" among refugees fleeing the civil
war.
"I arrived at the border with Syria and, unfortunately, I
saw unprecedented suffering," Sarah told Sunday's edition of the Holy
See's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
"A mother wanted to entrust to me her 4-month-old son,
because she had left her husband behind in Syria and didn't know when
she would see him again. Christian refugees asked me to beg the pope to
help them return home," he said.
He said the Church's resources "are limited compared to
what is needed: a guarantee of survival and basic services, schooling, a
roof over one's head."
Sarah was dispatched to Lebanon by Pope Benedict XVI to
meet refugees and Christian community leaders after the Vatican decided
that it was potentially dangerous and politically risky to send a
planned mission to Syria.
The mission began on Wednesday last week and lasted until Saturday.
Sarah, a Guinean cardinal, heads up the Cor Unum
Pontifical Council, a Vatican department that oversees the Catholic
Church's charity work.
In Lebanon he met leaders and faithful from Christian
churches present in Syria as well as refugees who have fled Syria, where
fighting between President Bashar Assad's troops and rebels risks
spilling over the country's borders.
More than 400,000 Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring states in the region, the U.N. said on Friday.