Rome Newsroom, Aug 5, 2020 / 09:00 am
After at least one explosion occurred at the ports of Beirut on Tuesday, a Maronite Catholic cardinal has said the local Church needs support to help the people of Lebanon recover from this disaster.
"Beirut is a devastated city. A catastrophe struck there because of the mysterious explosion which occurred in its port," Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, said Aug. 5.
"The Church, which has set up a relief network throughout Lebanese territory, today finds itself faced with a new great duty which it is unable to assume on its own," the statement of the patriarch continued.
He said after the Beirut explosion, the Church stands "in solidarity with the afflicted, the families of the victims, the wounded, and the displaced that it is ready to welcome in its institutions."