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“What is happening in Lebanon today, unfortunately, is that the world is silent and gives, as they say, its 'green light' to this violence,” said Bishop Mounir Khairallah, Eparch of Batroun of the Maronites, on October 5, 2024, at a press conference held at the Vatican. Delivering a poignant personal testimony, the Lebanese bishop, who is taking part in the Synod on Synodality, thanked Pope Francis for putting the question of forgiveness at the heart of the event.
Bishop Khairallah, from Batroun, north of Beirut, represents the Maronite Church at the Synod on Synodality. While his country has been subjected to bombardments and assaults by the Israeli army for several days, he described his presence in Rome as “a heartbreaking experience” and assured the audience that his “heart has remained” in Lebanon.
The bishop insisted on the importance of his presence in Rome, highlighting the fact that Pope Francis insisted on the dimension of forgiveness in his speech inaugurating the Synod.
“Is it impossible to talk about forgiveness when the bombings are hitting the whole of Lebanon? No,” he said.
Forgiving his parents' murderer
To illustrate his conviction, Bishop Khairallah recalled his personal experience of forgiveness. “When I was five years old, someone came into our house and brutally murdered my parents,” he confided, with a lump in his throat.
He continued: “I have an aunt, a nun of the Lebanese Maronite order, who came to get us four children. The oldest was six, the youngest two. She took us into her monastery, and in the Church, she invited us to kneel down and pray. To pray to the God of mercy and love. And she told us: 'We're not so much praying for your parents, who are martyrs in God's eyes, but rather for the one who murdered them. Try to forgive him all your life long!'"
Mounir Khairallah went on to join the seminary, being ordained in 1977, on the anniversary of his parents' death. On that occasion, he renewed his “promise of forgiveness, to forgive all those who have done us wrong”.
“Forgiveness is so difficult, but not impossible”
At the time, the country was embroiled in a violent civil war between Christian and Muslim militias. A few weeks after his ordination, during a retreat with young people, Father Khairallah realized that he couldn't convince his audience of the merits of forgiveness. “They were all armed to wage war against our enemies,” he recalled.
The young priest decided to tell his story to illustrate the virtue of forgiveness. One of his listeners replied:
“Father, I suppose you have forgiven. But imagine that now, you find yourself in the confessional and this person [the murderer of his parents, Editor's note] comes before you, confesses, and asks you for forgiveness, what will you do?”
The bishop was then forced to acknowledge that the answer to this question “wasn't easy” and thanked the young man, saying that thanks to this question, he had now had a genuine experience of forgiveness.
Until then, Father Khairallah had “forgiven from afar.” But this young man, by putting his parents' murderer “in front of him,” made him understand that “forgiveness is very difficult, but not impossible.”
National interests at the expense of peace
“All those who wage war against us, and whom we consider enemies - Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, all nationalities - are not our enemies,” the bishop assured. For him, those fomenting war “have no identity, no denomination, no religion” where people “want peace.”
Despite the “savage” wars that have struck his people for 50 years, Bishop Khairallah said he was certain that peace is possible if his people could unite to say “enough.”
“Let us leave aside our politicians, our own and those of the great powers,” he urged, accusing them of acting to serve their interests "at our expense."
“What is happening in Lebanon at the moment is that, unfortunately, the world is keeping quiet and giving, as they say, a 'green light' to this violence, because there are too many political and economic interests at stake,” he denounced. And he added: “the Americans, but also the countries of the West, do not support us and do not support the oppressed countries.”
The bishop did praise the work of Vatican diplomats and the popes in history in favor of Lebanon, but also the Vatican's ongoing support for the two-state solution in the Holy Land. “This resolution has always been refused, up to today, by the State of Israel,” he lamented.
Rosary for peace this Sunday; Day of fasting on Monday
Pope Francis has declared a day of prayer and fasting this Sunday, October 7, on the eve of the first anniversary of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the current conflict.
At 5 pm on the vigil of the day -- on October 6, accompanied by members of the Synod, he will go to the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray the rosary and ask the Virgin Mary to intercede for countries at war.
