Father Gabriel Hachem (ZENIT News – FIDES / Beirut, 08.17.2024).
- Since the outbreak of civil war in 1975, Lebanon, a small Middle Eastern country, has not known peace or stability. The population, including Christians, have resisted and continue to resist. But since October 7 and the beginning of the war on Gaza and Israel, given the conflict with Hezbollah, which hold the country’s fate in their hands and rule on war and peace, the situation has become hellish, not only in the south, near the Israeli border, but throughout Lebanon, with an economic and political paralysis that risks endangering the Nation’s very identity.
Lebanon has been without a president for almost two years, an institutional position that in the Lebanese system is reserved to Christians and represents a symbol of coexistence and respect for plurality. Even the government has resigned, the ministries are only dealing with current affairs at a time when instead the country, more than ever, needs decisions to be made about its future, its identity and stability. The political stakes – both regionally and internationally – complicate the Lebanese cause and leave the population amidst uncertainty and anguish.
Young people, Muslim and Christian alike, are rushing to flee Lebanon to seek refuge and a better future abroad. Parents, who often have no financial means of their own on account of the financial and banking crisis that hit the country nearly five years ago, await help and solidarity from th.