A cardinal close to Pope Francis has travelled to Lebanon to demonstrate the Pope’s ongoing concern for refugees and for peace in the Middle East. Source: Catholic Review.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, visited Lebanon on February 19-23.
“With the Holy Father hospitalised and sharing in the sufferings of all who suffer, there could be no better way to pray for Pope Francis during the past four days than to help make him present to the suffering people of Lebanon,” the cardinal said.
“The incursions of violence and destruction, the economic crisis, the political instabilities, the huge refugee problems” all have a concrete impact on real people, whom he visited in the Pope’s name, the cardinal said on Sunday, after he had returned to Rome.
“Every encounter included heartfelt prayers for him,” Cardinal Czerny said, “including with those who do not share our faith but do share our admiration, gratitude and love for him.”
Cardinal Czerny spoke to the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon, which had invited him to visit.
He also held a discussion with young adults involved in the Leadership Academy for Peace, an initiative of his dicastery. The academy aims to help Catholics under 35 from the Middle East and North Africa prepare to be political leaders with a grounding in Catholic social teaching.
But a key focus of his visit was on refugees. With a population of about 5 million and with 1.5 million refugees, mostly from Syria, the United Nations refugee agency has said, “Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometre in the world.”
Visiting Camp 004 near the village of Kfar Dlaqous on February 21, Cardinal Czerny was welcomed into the “home” of a family from Syria, a one-room cinderblock shack where a family of eight lives in one room.
Cardinal Czerny told them, “We have come to meet you and listen to you, and we share your hope to return home, to Syria.
“The Pope is happy that I am here among you. We weep for your suffering. The Pope weeps with you, he loves you.”
FULL STORY
Visiting the poor in Lebanon was a prayer for Pope Francis, cardinal says (By Cindy W0oden, CNS via Catholic Review)
