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MIDEAST-SFEIR (UPDATED) Jul-19-2006 (530 words) With photos posted July18 and 19. xxxi
Lebanese patriarch tells Cheney Israeli response not proportionate
By Regina Linskey
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Lebanon's Maronite Catholic patriarch said he told U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney that Israel has a right to defend itself, but its reaction to Hezbollah actions is not proportionate.
"The country is nearly destroyed, the runways, bridges, ports are all destroyed," Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir told Catholic News Service July 18 after his meeting with Cheney. The cardinal said "the Lebanese government is so weak, it is not able to oppose (its offenders). It has no means to."
Cardinal Sfeir met with Cheney at the White House before celebrating Mass at Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Washington. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, and Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington were among those concelebrating the Mass for peace in the Middle East.
Cardinal Sfeir also met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the State Department that evening before flying to Cyprus, where he hoped the U.N. would help him return to his homeland.
Rice told Cardinal Sfeir that the U.S. was "very concerned" about Lebanese civilians, reported The Associated Press July 18. Rice has been saying that there needs to be long-lasting peace, although she has declined to provide a timeline or specifics on the issue.
Cardinal Sfeir told CNS after the Mass that Cheney told him "he will see what he can do for us. It's not so easy because of a lot of complicated situations with a lot of countries." The cardinal said Cheney did not share the U.S. government's plan for the Middle East.
"He doesn't have a plan; at least he hasn't told me. I think, I hope he will intervene and put an end to this conflict," he said. "I think the U.S. government must be just."
By July 18, more than 230 Lebanese civilians had been killed since the outbreak of hostilities July 12, when Hezbollah militias based in southern Lebanon kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah had fired more than 700 Katyusha rockets at Israel, killing 13 Israeli civilians.
Cardinal Sfeir said he had sent messages to his priests back in Lebanon, instructing the parishes and the parishioners to "receive all the refugees in their classrooms and homes."
He said he had not had contact with any officials or Catholics in Israel, noting that "it is not possible for me to contact there."
About 400 people, including representatives of the Lebanese Embassy, attended the cardinal's midday Mass.
Cardinal Sfeir told the congregation that "as Christians we believe war is not inevitable. People choose war; we can choose peace."
Archbishop Wuerl said "prayer is one thing we can do. There is power in our supplication. When we pray, we show solidarity with the church and the people of Lebanon."
U.S. Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y., urged Lebanese-Americans to "present a true picture of Lebanon -- a cultured Lebanon, a religious Lebanon -- where Christians and Muslims live in fairly decent harmony. Pray that Lebanon is restored and takes its proper place among nations."
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Contributing to this story was Richard Szczepanowski in Washington.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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