Commenting on the Aug. 4 Beirut explosion, Sayah said "it's a huge disaster. The suffering of the people... and the destruction, and the winter is coming and people will certainly not have the time to rebuild their homes."
Sayah added, however, that "one of the beautiful things about this experience is the influx of people volunteering to help."
"Young people especially have really flocked in the thousands into Beirut to help, and also the international community which has been present offering assistance in various ways. It's a good sign of hope," he said.
Parolin also met with religious leaders at the Maronite Cathedral of St. George in Beirut.
"We are still shocked by what happened a month ago," he said. "We pray that God may render us strong to care for every person who was affected and to accomplish the task of rebuilding Beirut."
"As I arrived here, the temptation was to say that I would have liked to meet you in different circumstances. I said, 'no,' however! The God of love and mercy is also the God of history and we believe that God wants us to accomplish our mission of caring for our brothers and sisters in this present time, with all its difficulties and challenges."
In his homily, delivered in French with Arabic translation, Parolin said the Lebanese people can identify with Peter in the fifth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel.
After fishing all night and catching nothing, Jesus asks Peter "to hope against all hope," the Secretary of State noted. "After objecting, Peter obeyed and said to the Lord: 'but at your word I will let go of the nets… And having done so, he and his companions caught a great multitude of fish.'"
"It is the Word of the Lord which changed the situation of Peter and it is the Word of the Lord which calls today the Lebanese to hope against all hope and to move forward with dignity and pride," Parolin encouraged.
He also said that "the Word of the Lord is addressed to the Lebanese through their faith, through Our Lady of Lebanon and through Saint Charbel and all the saints of Lebanon."
Lebanon will be reconstructed not only on a material level, but also on the level of public affairs, according to the secretary of state. "We have every hope that Lebanese society will be based more on rights, duties, transparency, collective responsibility and the service of the common good."
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"The Lebanese will walk this path together," he said. "They will rebuild their country, with the help of friends and with a spirit of understanding, dialogue and coexistence that has always distinguished them."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.