Archbishop Abdel Sater:
“We finished 30% of restorations and what’s left is the damage the state needs to fix”
“Church property, if sold, like some suggested, would not be enough to save Lebanon from collapse”
“People turn to the Church as a mother and a home”
This interview is also available in Arabic.
On the first commemoration of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, the Communication and Public Relations Department of the Middle East Council of Churches published a special issue of its quarterly magazine “Al Muntada” in August 2021, entitled "Beirut, in the Heart of the Church, Beirut, a City of Resurrection". The issue includes an exclusive interview with the Curial Bishop of the Maronite Archdiocese of Beirut HE Archbishop Boulos Abdel Sater. It focuses on the humanitarian and material damages caused to the Maronite Church in Beirut, and on its role in helping its affected children and healing their wounds on many levels.
One year after the Beirut port explosion, 131 Maronite parishes had their churches destroyed and 145 priests went from serving masses to becoming relief teams. From focusing on the spiritual life to protecting dignities, homes, and rights… After one year, we meet with the Curial Bishop of the Maronite Archdiocese of Beirut HE Archbishop Boulos Abdel Sater to ask him: “How did you treat the wounds of Beirut? Are there still bleeding wounds left?” Archbishop of Beirut said a few weeks before the 4th of August that he does not trust that the identity of the person behind the explosion would be exposed, stressing on the fact that the state is responsible for revealing the truth. He pointed out that Lebanese people are looking for security and dignity and it is indecent for people to fight over a box of milk…
One year after the explosion, how would you describe the city today? Did the wounds heal? Is it still affected by the blast?
Of course, the effect of the explosion started to slowly disappear from destroyed buildings and homes on the day following the tragedy, as young people started coming from all around the country and worked for weeks to remove debris from homes and glass and rubbles from the streets… This is when Beirut’s face started to reappear. One year after the explosion, it is safe to say that building restorations has significantly progressed, putting into consideration the capabilities of the Church, world Church organizations, world humanitarian organizations cooperating with non-governmental institutions in Lebanon.
A lot of houses were not entirely restored as only the necessary parts were fixed, just so their owners could return home. We have worked on 5,000 houses amongst thousands of destroyed houses. This is not enough, but the restoration process takes time and effort, it also requires money that was supposed to be provided by the state as well as the necessary restoration crews.
We finished 30% of the restorations, what’s left are a few houses in need of minor restoration like windows or building facades.
We know that there are still some severely damaged buildings that could only be fixed through the help of the state’s financial and logistic capabilities, but the state is ignoring them still. The Governor of Beirut and the president of its municipality have promised to take care of the task but haven’t done anything about it yet. Today, Beirut looks way better than it used to on August 4 of last year. Life has once again filled streets and restaurants and we witnessed a noticeable boom in tourism. However, this does not mean that wounds have entirely healed. Some’s homes are still in desperate need of restoration, some owners are not repairing their buildings so the tenants won’t come back to e able to destroy and rebuild the building or to sell the land… we hope that Beirut gets even better in the days and months to come.
In numbers, what were the losses? What kind of relief plan did you provide? How many? How many people benefited from them? What are the remaining needed reliefs?
Days after the explosion, the Hungarian state provided financial aid worth about one million euros, through Caritas Cyprus and Caritas Lebanon. In coordination with the Maronite Archdiocese of Beirut and the Hungarian State, more than 1,000 homes have been renovated in Beirut. Other countries also provided financial aid through Caritas International to Caritas Lebanon, where it is still used to this day in restoration operations and the provision of food rations to meet people's needs.
In numbers, within the Archdiocese of Beirut, 1,800 to 1,900 houses were repaired so that people could go back to living in them, in cooperation with Caritas, CRDP, Solidarity, and other non-governmental organizations. The role of the Archdiocese of Beirut was to coordinate, select the most vulnerable families, and organize aid distribution through detailed lists of each beneficiary’s information. The Archdiocese also distributed 5,000 food boxes that were paid for by the Archdiocese itself and through international donations. We also received a donation of food boxes and clothes from France, and another donation from Malaysia. The Middle East Council of Churches contributed with food boxes that were distributed to the most vulnerable families. We also received electronic home appliances like washing machines and fridges. These donations were distributed in collaboration with the priests of each affected parish. The Lebanese army handled the organization of restoration work through dividing Beirut into sectors where they conducted field surveys of damages and victims.
The churches and institutions affiliated with the Maronite Archdiocese of Beirut were afflicted with damages estimated at about 3 to 4 million US dollars. The restoration of St. George's Cathedral in downtown Beirut and the Hospitality University costed around one million dollars each, Sagesse School in Ashrafieh’s restoration costed more than one million dollars... And finally, the complete restoration of the Archdiocese costed about 500 thousand dollars. Thankfully, we were able to secure these amounts through international donations, notably from France.
Do you believe that a new hope would fill the Lebanon and its citizens after the failure to contain the consequences of the Beirut port explosion and the economic crisis sinking the country?
After the explosion and the worsening of the economic crisis, people still need help securing food, medicine, and clothes, and paying house rents and hospital bills… they also need kitchen appliances and daily life necessities…
We used the donations we receive on the restoration of homes in need of necessary appliances, we rehabilitate bathrooms and kitchens… we are now done with the restoration of 80 houses, but there’s still work that needs to be done. The Archdiocese cooperated with priests to secure food donations to the parishes and distribute them to different locations to be able to fight famine and distribute hot meals to people in case of a worsening economic situation. We chose the parishes equipped with a semi-industrial kitchen for this task and provided them with the needed equipment. However, if this initiative fails, the food and equipment will be distributed to the people in need. Our field relief work is based on ecumenism since we’ve been helping all the children of the church because we’re all going through the same tragedy.
The Church is always asked to stand by its people, do you agree, or do you believe that this is the responsibility of the state? And why?
The Church cannot play the role of the state, the capabilities of the state are supposed to be wider. However, the Church should always stand by its people as much as possible. People turn to the Church as a mother and a home when the state ignores their needs claiming it lacks financial resources. In times of need, the Church keeps offering help with love. During the World War One, the Church in Lebanon helped people survive famine! However. The people should know that the state also has responsibilities to assume. The people should know that they also have a role to play in saving the country. At the same time, they should know that the Church capabilities are limited, and selling the Church lands, as some suggested, will not generate the money needed to save the country’s economy. It is inacceptable that the Lebanese state didn’t blink an eye after the Beirut port explosion. It is inacceptable that Lebanese officials didn’t help reviving the city and removing the rubbles. Here, in the Archdiocese, we gathered our efforts to offer help in every way possible, but our capabilities are still limited due to the economic and bank crises. We are thankful that the Sagesse school restorations would be completed by the end of August because it suffered from severe damage. We hope that students could go back to school soon, depending on the spread of the Coronavirus and the authority’s instructions. Our next year plans revolve around finding the balance between securing necessities for the continuity of the institution and providing the staff salaries while trying not to burden parents even more. What I can tell you is that this year we are not aiming for profit.
One year after the explosion, do you have any plans to secure the future of your people, especially the youth, to involve them more in the parish and keep them from leaving the country?
Ever since the explosion, people have been going through some faith and psychology crises. The Archdiocese created a hotline to answer all the questions of people in doubt, but faith remains the only answer to many questions: “why did this happen?”, “Why did he/she die?” What we know for certain is that Jesus Christ defeated death through his resurrection, and that dying in Jesus means resurrection. Priest tried to stand by people, they accompanied them through thick and thin, until a brotherly and fatherly bond was born between them and believers who strengthened their attachment to their churches even more. Even priests’ lectures and spiritual and religious celebrations are now seen through another perspective.
Communication and Public Relations Department