Concern has been expressed about the Christian exodus from Lebanon and the lack of a response from Western Governments.

Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), he fears that, if this crisis continues, “it will be the end of Christians in Lebanon and the whole of the near East in a few years”.

“Normally when Christians leave, as happened in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, they don’t return. They ask, ‘Why should we return when we can’t guarantee our children a decent life nor religious freedom?’”

He also explained that the number of Christians leaving Lebanon is very alarming:

“One of our clergy went to get a residency permit and an official told him that they issue 5,000 passports a day, and that they estimate that at least 3,000 of these are for Christians who then leave. We can’t convince them to stay because they say, ‘How can we endure this situation? There is no hope for our future.’ You have to look at the problems in Lebanon and tell the politicians that enough is enough. Perhaps it’s no more in the interest of the Western politicians. They have other issues to deal with.”

The Patriarch is unhappy with the efforts made by western governments to help Christians in the Middle East. He felt that European governments were more concerned with animal rights and pandering to secular groups than helping to uphold Christian’s rights in the Middle East.