Church Leaders in Lebanon Appeal for Aid in Wake of Explosion

[Michie]

“Yesterday, in one second, more damage to the Christian quarter of Beirut was done than throughout the long years of the civil war.”


The Maronite Catholic Church in Lebanon, along with Catholic aid agencies around the world, are appealing for aid after Tuesday’s deadly explosion in the port of Beirut that killed 135 people and injured more than 4,000 others.

“Beirut is a devastated city,” said Maronite Catholic Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai in an Aug. 5 “Appeal to the Countries of the World.”

Cardinal Rai said the Lebanese capital, which he called “the fiancée of the East and the beacon of the West,” had been “wounded” and resembled “a war scene” with “destruction and desolation in all its streets, its districts and its houses.”

President Michel Aoun of Lebanon said today the blast was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a waterfront warehouse. Port officials are being placed under house arrest pending an investigation.

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Church Leaders in Lebanon Appeal for Aid in Wake of Explosion

 

[Michie]

Lebanon's Catholic leaders seek help; here's where you can donate