I must say, after only three days here I've become rather
proficient in the Arabic language. Well ... maybe with one word of it anyway.
Yalla!
It means, "Let's go!" Saying it twice adds
urgency and means "Hurry up!" We seem to be hearing it a lot from our
guides, who are striving mightily to keep us on schedule.
Small wonder. The days are packed solid as we cross-cross
the country to meet Bishops, political officials, and, above all, displaced
persons and the religious communities and Catholic institutions that work with
them.
There are over fifty religious communities of consecrated
women and over twenty masculine orders in this country. Last evening a
gathering was hosted in which a good number of their religious superiors
gathered to meet with us. The range of their apostolic charitable works is
breathtaking. This was followed by a separate meeting with representatives of
Catholic charitable organizations working in the region: Caritas
Internationalis, CNEWA, Jesuit Refugee Services, St Vincent de Paul Society,
and Catholic Relief Services. Each from
its own perspective, they are all striving mightily to help people rebuild
their lives. The latter gathering also
included a meeting with a high-ranking official from the Lebanese Ministry of
Education, who spoke of the efforts they are making to include children of
displaced families in the school system.
The problem faced here is enormous. This country with a
population of 4 million people has opened its borders to receive 1.5 million
displaced people, most from Syria. To put that in perspective, applying the
same ratio to Canada would mean our country taking in about 13 million
refugees. The strain on Lebanon's resources is immense.
Today, though, we were reminded that we cannot speak of
this issue solely in terms of numbers. We traveled to two locations in the
Beqaa Valley, where we met families living either in settlements set up by
government, or in simple homes opened up to them by the local Catholic
population. The heart breaks when one sees scores of little children running
around a big "tent city" in very difficult circumstances, or when one
listens to a father recount the harrowing story of trying to eke out a living
in between ceasefires until finally making the painful decision to uproot his
family to escape the danger.
The numbers are overwhelming and the complexity of the
issues staggering. Yet it seems to me that the very place where today's
encounters took place offers a way forward. The Beqaa valley is where, only a
few decades ago, fierce fighting took place between Syria and Lebanon. In fact,
the city in which I met the displaced persons was under siege from the Syrian
army for a long time. Yet it is precisely the Syrian people who are now
welcomed by the Lebanese into their country and provided with shelter and basic
supplies. The way forward is to stop seeing the other as an enemy and to begin
encountering the other as a brother or sister.
 |
| Location of Beqaa Valley, Lebanon. |
When that happens we naturally want to reach out and
bring healing whenever the other suffers. In this particular situation it means
providing those in danger with safety and then working to help rebuild their
countries so that they can return once again to the place they have always
called home and to where their hearts naturally direct them, as would ours.
The situation remains urgent and solutions need to be
found and put in place without delay.
So, Yalla, Yalla!
