«The Pope gave us a surprise. We have once again had confirmation that Peter protects his Church”. Father Toni Elias, parish priest of the Christian village of Rmeich, on the border with Israel, is still emotional. «We knew nothing except that the nuncio would be received in audience. He has our mobile numbers, he created a whatsapp group. At a certain point he called us and who said he was next to the Pope. He passed the video call to him and all of us, there were about ten of us, had his blessing.”
What did the Pope tell you?
«He encouraged us, he said he prayed for us and that he blessed us together with our communities. We prayed together and it was a great joy. For us really a sigh of hope and trust.”
Did you say anything to him?
«We listened. The nuncio, Monsignor Paolo Borgia, spoke for us. He is doing more than can be done in these situations. He is bringing our voice, our suffering, what we are experiencing to the Holy Father. He knows us very well because he has visited us and continues to do so continually try to bring us help, to support us.”
A few days ago a village near you was destroyed.
«Yes, the village of Yarun. It was a mixed village of Christians and Muslims and was wiped out. Also in Debel around fifteen houses were damaged.”
And what is the situation in Rmeich?
«At the moment we no longer hear explosions, but we remain closed. There are many families who have remained separatedpartly here, partly in Beirut or elsewhere. They cannot reunite because we cannot move nor can they reach us from the North. Aid convoys managed to arrive after a total closure of about fifteen days. We try to get back to life, but it’s difficult in this situation. We were isolated and everything around us was destroyed».
Despite everything, have you managed to keep hope alive?
“Certain. And the Pope’s phone call gave us even more strength. We knew it, but we saw firsthand that we truly are the Mystical Body of Christ. The leader is Jesus, but his servant on earth is the Pope. His phone call says that the whole Church is thinking about it, he is leading us in prayers. This encourages us. And I’m not just talking about us priests, but about the whole community. As soon as people heard about the Pope’s phone call, unimaginable joy spread. And I was also happy to have responded from a room where I had the painting of the Immaculate Conception behind me. We are not alone. We already knew it, but this morning we concretely experienced that we were in the heart of the Church.”
