Church has failed Lebanon Synod

By VIVIANE HEWI I"Ir IN ROMP.
Two FORMER Lebanese leaders claimed this week that the Church did not fulfil its pastoral role "perfectly" in their country and they called on the on-going Synod on Lebanon to rectify the shortcoming.
As the Synod in the Vatican entered its second week, former President Amin Gemayel said the assembly constituted an invitation to Lebanese Christians to explore how they could enhance their contribution to the effort to restore peaceful co-existence in the country "the only place in the world once where respect for religious faith did not lead to an atheistic State".
He said the clergy were being called to "define their mission" because "pastoral life has not fulfilled its role perfectly".
Gemayel warned during his brief visit to Rome that Lebanese Christians were fleeing their country in a wave of "emigration which has recently accelerated".
This particular issue is likely to be debated at the Synod given the Vatican's concern for the future of dwindling Christian communities throughout the Middle East and especially in Israel.
According to Vatican statistics, Christians were the majority in Lebanon in 1975 but now represent only 50 per cent of the population.
Gemayel suggested that Synod fathers see the assembly as a "building site, as if they were organising the building of a cathedral".
He added, however, that the Church had the merit of sustaining the Christian community that has persevered in Lebanon. "That the Synod has been organised is proof that we persevered", he said.
From his exile in Paris, another former Lebanese leader, General Michael Aoun urged the Church not to "turn its back on politics" since the primary concern of politics was mankind.
John Paul 11, who announced the Synod on Lebanon in 1991, opened the assembly on November 26 to run until December 14.
Meeting together are representatives of the Maronites 700,000 in Lebanon with 300,000 more world-wide and of the Greek-Catholic Church with 200,000 faithful. Lebanon's 300,000strong Orthodox have sent delegates as observers.
The synod, whose theme is "Christ is our hope: Renewed by His Spirit, together they testify to his Love", is also likely to touch on the possibility of a Papal visit to Lebanon next year.
John Paul has told the Lebanese Church that he is anxious to visit the country to "give heart" to the population enduring a civil war for the past 17 years.
He is also concerned that dialogue between Christianity and Islam resumes and he insisted that three Islamic exponents, the Shi'ite, Sunnite and Druse, participate.