Pope provides funding for
scholarships in Lebanon
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| Lebanese students arriving in the United States (ANSA) |
An extraordinary intervention by Pope Francis intends to
support the education of young people in Lebanon, which has been hit by “a
serious crisis that is causing suffering and poverty” and risks robbing future
generations of hope.
By Vatican News
On Thursday, the Holy See Press Office announced that Pope
Francis has sent a donation of USD 200,000 to support 400 scholarships in
Lebanon.
The donation was made “in the hope of achieving a gesture of
solidarity and with the desire that all involved at national and international
levels will responsibly pursue the search for the common good, overcoming every
division and partisan issue”.
In a communiqué announcing the gift, the Press Office notes
that “Pope Francis with fatherly concern has continued to follow in recent
months the situation of beloved Lebanon… that has always been an example of the
coexistence and fraternity that the Document on Human Fraternity wished to
offer to the whole world”.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the
foundation of the State of Greater Lebanon, the predecessor of the modern
nation. Yet, the communique notes, “the Land of the Cedars … is experiencing a
severe crisis that is causing suffering and poverty, and that risks ‘robbing of
hope’ especially younger generations who see their present as arduous and their
future as uncertain”.
The ongoing crisis has made it difficult to ensure that
young people in the country have access to education, which in many places, and
especially smaller areas, has been provided by ecclesiastical institutions. The
Holy Father’s gift is intended to help meet that need.
According the Press Office, the donation was made through
the Secretariat of State and the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. “The
intervention is in addition to the contribution that the Emergency Fund of the
CEC (Congregation for the Eastern Churches) has made in recent days to deal
with the emergency linked to the Covid-19 pandemic”, the communiqué states.
The Pope’s donation is accompanied by the prayer that Our
Lady of Lebanon, “the Mother of God who watches over Lebanon from Harissa
Mountain” together with all the saints of Lebanon, “might protect the Lebanese
people”.
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