‘Christ’s tears join with ours’ says Pope on Beirut explosion anniversary

The apostolic nuncio Archbishop Paolo Borgia led a vigil in Karantina in the square in front of Our Lady of Deliverance Church, one of the hardest-hit areas near the port.

The Pope expressed his closeness with commemorations of the devastating explosion in Beirut’s port on 4 August 2020, which included a silent march, moving testimonies and the symbolic planting of 75 trees in honour of the victims.

Lebanon remembered the 245 killed and 6,000 injured in the explosion on its fifth anniversary, with many prayers and appeals for action to end the country’s prolonged crisis.

Pope Leo XIV extended his closeness to the Lebanese people through a message signed by the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

In the text, the Pope said that “Christ’s tears are joined with our own in the face of the loss and suffering of our loved ones”.  He expressed “his compassion for all those whose hearts are wounded or who have lost everything due to this catastrophe”.

“Beloved and suffering Lebanon remains at the centre of our prayers,” he said in the message read at the vigil held in Beirut on Sunday evening presided over by the apostolic nuncio to Lebanon, Archbishop Paolo Borgia.

The nuncio told Vatican News it was a “deeply moving” moment. The commemoration took place in Karantina in the square in front of Our Lady of Deliverance Church, one of the hardest-hit areas near the port, where the greatest number of rescue operations were concentrated in the hours following the explosion.

“There was a moment of prayer during which the families of victims and the injured came together. There were also some testimonies, followed by a silent march to a garden along the road to the port, where in recent days 75 trees bearing the names of victims were planted. More will be planted in the future,” Borgia explained.

Lebanon’s Minister of Culture Ghassan Salamé announced that the silo at the site of the explosion had been listed as an historic monument of the country.

“The wounds from that tragic explosion still run deep,” the nuncio noted. “Six thousand 500 people were treated in Beirut’s hospitals, the chaos, the dead on the streets – it’s all still vivid in the memory of the Lebanese people.”

Borgia recalled the conversation Pope Francis had with the victims’ families last year. During that meeting, held at the Vatican, Francis called for justice and truth for the families who have been demanding it for years. He said it was a “complicated and thorny” issue.

According to Borgia, “there are conflicting interests at play, but truth and justice must prevail above all else”.

“Today, however, there’s a bit more hope. Some steps are being taken in the investigation phase,” he said, but the investigation is in its preliminary phase, and the deadly explosion has “no clear cause or explanation”.

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