A Brisbane-based Maronite priest has urged Catholics to pray for peace as fighting escalates in the Middle East. Source: The Catholic Leader.
Fr Fadi Salame says families like his in south Lebanon are faced with a choice to leave their homes for shelter in the north, leaving them vulnerable to occupation and looting, or risk being caught in the crossfire of escalating fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
“And there’s no way back,” he said. “Right now, the roads were only open one way – north.
“No one knows how long the fighting will last.”
He said he was in contact with his family, who lived only minutes from the southern border with Israel, ensuring they had a plan to move his 95-year-old mother if evacuation alerts were issued for their village.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading strikes across the southern Lebanese border since October 8, 2023.
Initially, Hezbollah launched rocket strikes on Israel to deter it from its war in Gaza, and the two skirmished with airstrikes ever since.
But the conflict escalated when hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated simultaneously on consecutive days, September 17 and 18.
The devices allegedly belonged to Hezbollah members, but the explosions also killed and wounded many Lebanese civilians.
Fr Salame said those attacks were “shocking”.
“That was a shocking attack for everyone to hear about, how many devices exploded at the same time,” he said.
On Sunday, the Maronite community in Brisbane offered Mass at the Gold Coast for peace in Lebanon.
Fr Salame said many community members were coming to him “very worried” about the safety of their families in south Lebanon.
“We are all talking about what’s going to happen and how we’re going to help move our families to somewhere else,” he said.
Fr Salame urged Catholics to pray for peace. He said it was not Lebanon’s war.
He said Lebanon was just the land for a war between larger geopolitical powers and that made it all the more tragic.
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Maronite priest calls on Brisbane Catholics to pray for peace as fighting escalates in Middle East
(By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
