Beirut (AsiaNews) Maronite bishops are afraid that the destruction wrought by Israel and the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism will push Christians to leave en masse the land of the cedar tree. For this reason, through AsiaNews, they are appealing to international organisations to help the Lebanese population as quickly as possible re-open schools, deliver medicines and prepare for the coming winter.
In an interview with AsiaNews, Mgr Guy-Paul Noujaim, Maronite Patriarchal Vicar for the diocese of Sarba, expressed his concerns. "These days a great number of Christians are joining the exodus. They feel abandoned."
In his diocese, Vicar Noujiam has set a crisis unit to cope with the ongoing situation. "On the eve of schools re-opening, half of the population will be unable to send its children to private schools. And here in Lebanon public schools are unreliable," he said, adding that the fate of the elderly and the sick, "who can't find health care facilities for their needs", is an urgent problem that must be dealt with.
Mgr Paul Matar, Maronite archbishop of Beirut, also spoke to AsiaNews, pleading that "international organisations act quickly to help our people, weak in the face of this crisis before the onset of winter". He, too, believes that a mass flight of Christians is a real danger.
"They want to leave the country not out of fear, but out of uncertainty for its future," he said.
This morning he visited Shiite areas of Beirut, now rubbles. "It is necessary to start rebuilding this country, laid waste by fierce bombardments for weeks. Only this can help its citizens, Christians and Muslims, stay in Lebanon."
Mgr Georges Bakouni, Greek-Melkite metropolitan of Tyre, never left his diocese during the war between Israel and Hezbollah despite Israeli air strikes, which destroyed at least 15 churches. In his view, "Israel bombed our churches and villages because it wants to rid Lebanon of its Christians".
He has called on all his flock forced to flee in the last few weeks to "come home and show that Lebanon will not die," asserting that "[w]e shall never abandon Lebanon into the hand of Israel or the Muslims. We were here long before them and want to coexist with everyone."
Lebanon, which is considered the only place of refuge for Christians in the Middle East, and the one bridge between the "Muslim" East and "Christian" West, is now faced with the real possibility of losing its Christian population.
In the last official census dating back to 1932, the mostly Maronite Christians constituted 63 per cent of the population. Muslims were around 35 per cent and the other 2 per cent belonged to smaller denominations. Today estimates put Christians at 32 per cent of the population.
The reasons for this huge drop are multiple: the creation of the state of Israel and the many wars between the Jewish state and Arab countries; the parasitical rise of Islamic fundamentalism; and the indifference of Western Christians towards the fate of their Eastern brethren. These factors have been compounded by the troubles of the Lebanese economy and the rising inflation and political instability.
The regions of destination for this exodus are northern Europe (above all for Chaldeans and Assyrians) and the Americas and Australia (for Maronites, Melkites, Orthodox and Armenians).
