VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians in the Middle East not to lose hope despite the serious difficulties they face.
“I extend my prayerful thoughts to the regions in the Middle East, encouraging all the priests and faithful to persevere with hope through the serious suffering that afflicts these beloved people,” he said.
The Pope made his remarks when he greeted Armenian Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni of Beirut and Armenian bishops from around the world attending their synod in Rome.
At the end of the general audience on March 7 in St Peter’s Square, the Pope expressed his “sincere gratitude” for Armenian Catholics’ fidelity to their heritage and traditions, and to the successor of St Peter.
Such fidelity had always sustained the faithful throughout “the innumerable trials in history”, he said.
The majority of Catholics in the Middle East belong to Eastern Catholic churches – the Armenian, Chaldean, Coptic, Maronite or Melkite churches.
In his catechesis, the Pope said often it seemed God was silent, especially during times of great trial and difficulty.
“Often in our prayers we find ourselves before God’s silence and we almost feel a sense of abandonment; it seems that God isn’t listening or answering,” he said.
But that silence “is not a sign of his absence”.
“The Christian knows well that the Lord is present; he listens even in the darkness of pain, refusal and loneliness,” he said.
God knew what each and every person needed and desired even before it was voiced in prayer, and God’s silence “invites us to deeper faith and trust in his promises”, he said.
Silence played an important part in everyone’s relationship with God, he said.
It was only by carving out quiet time where outside disturbances were avoided and an inner silence was cultivated that God’s voice can be heard and meaning found, the Pope said.
However, that was proving to be very difficult to do today, he said.
This was not an era that fostered silence and reflection, rather “sometimes there’s the impression that people are afraid to detach themselves even for a moment from the flood of words and images filling every day”, he said.
He said Jesus taught his disciples how to pray in silence and how to create a space of inner calm deep inside so God can dwell there, so his word can take root there, and “so one’s love for him radiates out to our mind, our heart and animates our life”.
BEIRUT (CNS): Church aid workers scrambled to find housing for hundreds of Syrian refugees who have fled to neighbouring Lebanon because of ongoing violence between Syrian forces and armed rebels.
About 200 families – more than 1000 people overall – made their way to the border town of Qaa in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon on March 5 and were struggling in the region’s near-freezing temperatures.
Caritas Lebanon president Fr Simon Faddoul told Catholic News Service on March 6 that “women and children and the elderly are coming out in the cold, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, to seek safety”.
“It’s very cold, and they have nothing,” he said.
The United Nations refugee agency said that as many as 2000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon on March 5 and 6 to escape the violence that had claimed hundreds of lives.
Fr Faddoul said most of the refugees arrived on foot from areas near the besieged city of Homs.
“They are leaving the young men behind in Syria to guard their houses” from attack, Fr Faddoul said.
“These are people fleeing from war, their homes under bombardment. Things are getting out of hand,” he said.
Before the latest surge, about 100 families had fled to Lebanon in recent weeks and were receiving assistance from Caritas, the priest said.
Fr Faddoul estimated that about 40 of the newly arrived families were Christian, while the rest were Muslim.
“This has nothing to do with religion. Whenever there is suffering, we have to be there with them and to help them,” he said.
Caritas has deployed two social workers and about 15 volunteers in Qaa. They have distributed 300 blankets and personal hygiene kits.
Fr Faddoul said the availability of adequate housing in the poverty-ravaged town of Qaa was limited.
About 30-35 refugees are crammed into rooms that are about 11.5 square metres in size.
Caritas is collaborating with municipal officials to locate homes that three or four families could share.
Caritas Lebanon has had a regular presence in the Bekaa Valley, with co-ordinating programs in agriculture, farming and irrigation to address the region’s poverty.
“Now we have so many concerns, how to find shelters, especially if the situation (in Syria) drags on,” Fr Faddoul said.
“We hope the situation doesn’t deteriorate further.”
