Monsignor John A. Esseff turns off the television and the telephones to conduct a retreat.[snip]
So after two weeks of contemplative, isolated retreats in his ancestral home of Lebanon, the 78-year-old priest emerged refreshed on Sunday. He was also oblivious to the violence crippling the country.
At the retreat house in Bcharre, about 80 miles north of Beirut, a brief scan of Arab television sent him right back to his knees — and thrust back in time. For the second time in 20 years, Monsignor Esseff would have to flee Lebanon.
“I’m as informed as anyone can be, and I think I have to cry out to God,” he said, his eyes welling with tears. “I just don’t weep for Christians. I just don’t weep for Muslims.[The photograph is from the New York Times --- coffins of those killed being readied for a mass burial]
“I just weep for what we do.”
:: Update :: [Visit the following site at your own risk: From Israel to Lebanon. Link via a post at Antioch Abouna, linked from Don Jim. He also provides links to a variety of Lebanese bloggers who give their view from the ground.]
:: Update :: [Air India will airlift Indian nationals trapped in Lebanon out of Cyprus. [The 1991 airlift of Indians out of Kuwait was one of the largest civilian airlifts since WWII, I believe]
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