CV NEWS FEED // The ripple effect of ongoing conflict in the Middle East has meant an “endless” Lent for Syrians, the Archbishop of Damascus stated in his message for Lent this year.
“The Syrian people did not have to wait for Lent to arrive, their lives are already filled with austerity and daily sacrifices,” said Maronite Archbishop of Damascus, Most Reverend Samir Nassar in his message for Lent according to a recent Asia News report.
Christians in Syria have been living under “forced lent” for the past 13 years, the report stated, pointing out that the war in Gaza has quickly developed into a “regional conflict” with tensions in the Red Sea having catastrophic effects on Syria.
Archbishop Nassar continued:
For 13 years now, our families [have been] living a forced Fasting which is becoming heavier each day, that seems like an endless Calvary.
No heat for the elders fragilized by the cold winter, no baby milk for the newborns, a shortage of many medicines aggravating sicknesses and illnesses, extreme poverty. Those are the conditions leading to the death of many.
Once viewed as the hope of the future, the young generation is suffocating and desperate. Poverty, lack of jobs, impossibility to start new families, impossibility to apply for visas and leave the country as consulates are shutting down, eliminating thus their last hope. A total blockade with devastating sanctions.
Furthermore, Nassar added, the possibility of escape on refugee boats has had fatal consequences for many.
“Isn’t all of the above a form of forced euthanasia that is slowly and surely being imposed on that poor and deprived population?” he asked, concluding: “Let us entrust our concerns to Our Lady of the Resurrection.”
