U.S. Maronite bishops mourn priest killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon village

Two Maronite bishops in the U.S. are calling for prayer, dialogue and solidarity after a Maronite priest was killed in Lebanon amid the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.

Father Pierre al-Rahi succumbed to injuries sustained March 9 when an Israeli artillery tank fired on a house in the southern Lebanon village of Qlayaa.

Lebanon and several other Middle East nations have come under attack since U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, launched Feb. 28 and met with counterattacks by that nation, have plunged the region — as well as global relations and markets — into uncertainty.

Father al-Rahi, also known by his French name Pierre el-Raï, had along with other priests refused Israeli orders to evacuate the Maronite village, located a few miles from the border with Israel and home to some 8,000.

When the strike took place, Father al-Rahi “didn’t wait” but “went to jump in right away” after hearing “one of the homes in his town was bombarded,” Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, who heads the St. Louis-based Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, told OSV News.

But, said Bishop Zaidan, the priest was injured in a second strike that took place “right away” after the first, and then “died in the hospital.”

In a message shared with OSV News, Maronite Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn, New York, reflected on Father al-Rahi’s death by quoting John 15:13: “No greater love has any man than to give his life for his friends.”

“May God’s good servant, Father Pierre Al Rahi, rest in peace,” said Bishop Mansour. “May his patriarch, bishop, brother priests, parishioners and family be consoled by the Holy Spirit.”

Bishop Zaidan called the priest’s death a “sad story and unfortunate situation.”

With roots in Syria and Lebanon, the global Maronite Catholic Church — one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches that, along with the Roman Catholic Church, comprise the universal Catholic Church — mourns to see Lebanon ravaged again by war, said Bishop Zaidan.

“It’s definitely a sadness and a sorrow, because Lebanon is a spiritual home for Maronites, like the Vatican is for all Catholics,” he said. “And we feel that attachment.”

Yet in the midst of death, the hope of new life through Christ is present, said Bishop Zaidan.

“The blood of martyrs helps to build the Church in that way, and gives us the determination to keep going despite everything, and to witness to the love of Christ in that perspective,” he said.

Bishop Zaidan offered a message for the faithful following the priest’s death.

“I would say, as Pope Leo XIV has, enough violence; let’s dialogue, let’s talk,” he said.

In addition, “keep praying and praying and praying,” Bishop Zaidan urged.

And, he said, “stand in solidarity” with those suffering in the war by thinking about and reflecting on what they are experiencing.

“I think we go a long way from that perspective, because ‘whatever you have done to the least of my brothers and sisters, you’ve done it to me,'” said Bishop Zaidan, quoting Matthew 25:40. “This gesture of support that says, ‘We’re praying for you, we’re thinking about you, we’re feeling for you’ — I think this beautiful support can help our brothers and sisters.”

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