Lebanon: Catholic Action Needed

[guest post by the founder of Angelqueen.org, John Grasmeier -- JtH]

Lebanon: Catholic Action Needed
By John Grasmeier
July, 2006

Link & comments: http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8635
"For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." - St. Paul to the Ephesians

The situation as it stands now

Lebanon is a country that was just beginning to recover from decades of suffering and civil war. Tourism, commerce and industry had finally begun to return to a war-ravaged nation. Instead of constant suffering and war, peace and relative security was beginning to gain a marked toe-hold.

After only a few weeks time, the dream of Lebanon's recovery has come to an abrupt and very tragic halt.

After Hezbollah guerillas captured 2 Israeli soldiers in an ambush, Israel implemented a pre-planned “plug and play” military operation that is now destroying crucial infrastructure and wreaking unholy havoc on a helpless and lamenting civilian population. In a virtual instant, dreams of any recovery have been dashed for now and for years to come.

As of the time of this article, hundreds of civilians have been killed - mostly women and children - while few Hezbollah guerilla (the supposed targets) deaths have been recorded. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are without homes. Thousands have been injured and nearly all business activity has ground to a halt. Transportation assets and housing has been reduced to rubble. What was once a recovering and modernizing society in the mostly devolved Middle East has been set back decades. In fact it may not recover at all. Even if Lebanon were rebuilt tomorrow (as opposed to taking many years), tourists will no longer see it as a travel destination and foreigners will be loathe to invest in its economy.

What a fine catastrophe to be created over two captured soldiers.

Holy Mother Church in Lebanon

Although it goes without saying that properly formed Catholics are always prayerful and concerned with such grave matters as war and human suffering, such a situation would not under normal circumstances be specifically to related to the faith or dealt with directly by most Catholic media outlets such as this one.

These however, are not normal circumstances.

Lebanon is the absolute last nation in the Mideast where there still exists substantial Christian population, or what’s left of one. Approximately 36% of Lebanese citizens are Maronite Eastern rite Catholics. If Lebanon continues to be destabilized or devolves into further chaos, there exists the distinct possibility that the Christians living there will once again begin to flee en masse, as they did during the scourging of previous tribulations when their numbers comprised over 80% of the population. We should be ever mindful that once this final bastion of Catholicism is vanquished, the Middle East will then (save for a few tiny remnants) be tragically devoid of any noticeable Catholic or even Christian society.

Our Holy Father, through communications released by the Holy See, has properly expressed righteous indignation over this human tragedy. All good Catholics should share his outrage, and thus far most have. Traditional, contemporary, Orthodox and other Catholic websites and publications have realized that our Eastern brethren and their families, who are mere victims trapped in this enormous tragedy, need our avocations, our support and our prayers.

Although many of us are Western Catholics who generally tend to hold many conservative political views (as does this author), you should not succumb to the prevalent groupthink that is currently infecting the “Israel can do no wrong” American/Western right. This flawed and dangerous mindset is being driven by factions that possess varying motivational inspirations, but shared goals. Two of the more prominent of these factions that immediately come to mind are the neoconservatives (who have largely hijacked and debilitated Western conservatism) and dispensational Protestants who adhere to the theologically absurd “rapture” heresy. Know that the neoconservatives are not your friends, and that the dispensational Protestant lemmings (and useful idiots of the Israelis)
would madly have a human disaster beyond all comprehension if they – God forbid – ever were to achieve their “end is nigh” unholy dream.

Although taking a proper Catholic position may cause us become somewhat isolated from many of our otherwise political and functional alliances, we are called first to engage the world as members of Christ's universal Church. This is not optional or voluntary. We are compelled by our faith to propagate Christian ideals, speak to injustice and condemn evil regardless of any worldly concerns or potential condemnations. Our faith is sacrificial by its very nature, and has been since its inception when Our Lord died on the cross.

What can be done?

Catholics are historicly a creative and dynamic bunch, who certainly don't need to rely on an article such as this for ideas to affect change. That being said, here are just a few suggestions:

· As our Holy Father recently implored, we must sacrifice, fast and pray not only for the victims, but for their "know not" victimizers as well.

· One of the first casualties of war is truth, so become well informed. Do not believe everything you're told by the media.

· If you're a writer, you should write. Bloggers should blog, speakers should speak and preachers should preach. We must gently but firmly insist to others that there is nothing goodly or Godly about the current evil metastasizing in Lebanon.

· If you have the means and you'd like to contribute financially to help ameliorate the human suffering in Lebanon, the Vatican website has set up a fund to accommodate such.

· If you are in a leadership position or have some other type of influence, use it. If you're a Catholic politician, do not follow the shameful example of some of your counterparts, who are too fearful, compromised or ignorant to speak out against clear evil. Do not throw your lot in with your spiritually-vacant and faithless colleagues such as Rick Santorum, who while attending a "Christians United For Israel" (CUFI) event threw his full support behind Israel's wrathful temper tantrum while standing under a giant ceiling to floor Israeli flag. If you are a politician or leader who is unwilling to work towards bringing about a providential solution to this horror, then please just keep quiet. Uselessness or weakness is preferential to sinfully exacerbating an already bad situation.

· If you are none of the above and all you have to offer is prayer, then please pray - and pray hard. Our Lord answers the righteous prayers of His children.

· Come together. Although we often argue amongst ourselves and our faith cuts across many walks of life, there certain times when we truly must be as universal and one as possible.

Whatever you do, don't just stand there looking uncatechized. Our Lord, Holy Mother Church, the world and most particularly our Catholic brothers and sisters in Lebanon need your help.

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Whatever you do, don't just stand there looking uncatechized. Our Lord, Holy Mother Church, the world and most particularly our Catholic brothers and sisters in Lebanon need your help.