Tag: Lebanon

Christians in southern Lebanon face a deepening crisis as war intensifies and displacement grows. While many long to remain, the loss of hope is driving a new wave of emigration.

Southern Lebanon is largely Shia Muslim, but there are a handful of predominantly Christian villages – Melkite Catholics, Maronite Catholics and Greek Orthodox. These have been spared, along with Druze villages, as they were not harbouring Hezbollah militants. But their residents have been cut off from the rest of the country; they live on islands in a sea of destruction.

An Israeli soldier has been sentenced to 21 days of military detention for placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, while another soldier who photographed the act received a 14-day sentence, the Israeli army said 11 May.

Lebanese Catholic priests serving in the south of the country near the border with Israel said they were overjoyed to discover that a call with Lebanon's papal nuncio included another special guest on the online visit, Pope Leo XIV.

After 2 May news reports that Israeli bulldozers demolished Holy Savior Christian school in the village of Yaroun, in southern Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces said that while some damage was caused, they denied "demolishing" the site with bulldozers.

Lebanese Christians in Debel are celebrating the gift of a new statue of Jesus on the cross after a recent act of desecration by two Israeli soldiers drew global outrage.

Catholic leaders in the Holy Land expressed their "unreserved condemnation" after a picture of an Israeli soldier striking the head of a statue of Jesus in Debel, a Christian village in southern Lebanon, went viral on social media 19 April.

Maronite bishop urges prayer and Australian action as escalating violence leaves hundreds dead and Lebanon excluded from ceasefire efforts.

As the death toll in Lebanon continues to rise following devastating strikes by the Israeli military, the Vatican's representative in the country said the bombardment "is not the right path."

As Christians of the southern Lebanese village of Debel were not able to spend Easter in their homes and churches, and the Vatican humanitarian convoy was not able to reach them, Pope Leo XIV sent a consoling message to a shattered community on 7 April.

The war between Israel and Hezbollah threatens to accelerate the dechristianisation of the land where Christ walked

Lebanese Maronite Catholic priest Father Pierre al-Rahi was commemorated by Pope Leo XIV ahead of the cleric's funeral attended by scores of faithful as well as Catholic and Lebanese government officials in his southern village of Qlayaa.