Meeting with members of the Plenary of the Congregation for Eastern Churches on Friday, Pope Francis highlighted the many problems facing believers of the Eastern churches.
His Holiness, Pope Francis, said that “humanity still seems to be groping in the dark,” focusing on the massacres from conflicts in the Middle East such as in Syria, Iraq, and the “drama” facing Lebanon, while also commenting about the “threatening winds across the steppes of Eastern Europe”.
Pope Francis told participants in the Synod of Eastern Churches that many people in Lebanon were left without bread causing many young people and families to leave the country as the tragedy continues.
The Pope also mentioned that “young people and adults have lost hope and left these lands, which are the motherland of the Eastern Catholic Churches, developing and preserving the traditions of a millennium, and many of you, members of this circle of the Vatican, are its children and heirs”.
The Vatican and Pope Francis have expressed their support to Lebanon many times before with the Vatican commenting that his holiness might be visiting Lebanon this year if the conditions are favorable for such a visit.
The Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, commented that the visit will perhaps be “by the end of the year.”
Pope Francis also held many prayers at the Vatican in support of Lebanon with the participation of representatives of Lebanese Christian communities.
