Conflict in the Middle East

Lebanon’s Catholic clergy celebrated a commemorative Mass and held a vigil in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, remembering those who perished five years earlier, on Aug. 4, 2020, in the catastrophic Beirut port explosion.

An Israel Defense Forces investigation concluded that the strike on the Holy Family Parish compound on July 17 was the result of an accidental mortar round that veered off course during “operational activity” by IDF troops in the area of Gaza City, the IDF said in a July 23 statement.

The recent 12-day war between Israel and Iran has brought about fear and anxiety in the country and tested the faith of its small Catholic community, said Belgian Cardinal Dominique Mathieu of Tehran-Isfahan.

Amid the destruction witnessed during their July 18–20 pastoral visit to Gaza, following the Israeli shelling of the Holy Family Parish church compound that killed three people and injured 10, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III said they found something more enduring — “the dignity of the human spirit.”

Syrian Christian leaders say they cannot trust the Islamist-led Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa to provide the safety they need after a week of deadly clashes that claimed the lives of 1,000 people in the southern region of Sweida and urged international protection.