BEIRUT (OSV News): It is the inner wounds that are the most painful, still festering in the aftermath of the horrific Beirut port blast on 4 August 2020 [Sunday Examiner, 16 August 2020]. There is still no accountability or justice for massive explosion in the Lebanese capital, with the investigation obstructed by legal and political wrangling.
Caused by the detonation of a stockpile of ammonium nitrate, stored improperly at the port for years, the disaster is considered one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in global history.
During a commemorative Mass on the eve of the blast anniversary, Bechara Cardinal Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said he joined those “who cry until today for their loved ones and cry out for truth and justice.”
The Mass at St. George Maronite Cathedral in Beirut was attended by family members of the blast victims, the injured and those whose homes and livelihoods had been destroyed. Many family members, dressed in black, held photos of their deceased loved ones.
Melvine Khoury, communications manager for the Beirut Maronite diocese, who was injured during the blast and endured seven surgeries, opened with a prayer as the cardinal was presented with symbols of the disaster. They included a damaged clock frozen at 6.07pm, the time of the blast; poster of images of all those who were killed entitled “waiting for justice” and a nurse’s dress representing medical personnel for their humanitarian dedication, some of whom were killed in their service.
“We light a candle of hope in Lebanon that it will arise from the death of injustice and darkness,” Khoury said.
Faced with such a catastrophe, it is unacceptable to remain silent, what hurts these families and hurts us the most is the indifference of state officials who are preoccupied with their cheap interests
Cardinal Rai
In his homily, Cardinal Rai assured all with the gospel passage: “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known” [Luke 12:2].
The cardinal cited the ravages of the tragedy: 235 dead; about 5,000 wounded and handicapped, and thousands of homes, churches, places of worship, institutions and shops destroyed, with half of the capital affected. With disintegrated state institutions, however, even the final death toll remains disputed, with some victims unrecognised officially.
“Faced with such a catastrophe, it is unacceptable to remain silent,” Cardinal Rai said, adding that “what hurts these families and hurts us the most is the indifference of state officials who are preoccupied with their cheap interests.”
The cardinal denounced “political figures who pretend to be innocent while evading appearing before the investigative judge.”
He asked, “If you are innocent, why are you running away and obstructing the investigation?”
Cardinal Rai called on world powers to hand Lebanon the information and satellite images they have to facilitate the truth of the blast and to “put an end to the political interferences” in the investigations.
“We are living the 4th of August every day. Our lives have changed forever,” Helene Ata, whose twin brother, Abdo, was killed in the blast, lamented. Her younger brother Issam, who was in the same building as Abdo, was trapped beneath rubble for 18 hours, one of his legs crushed. Even after several operations, he can still barely walk.
For the third year in a row, on August 13, Ata will not blow out candles on a birthday cake with her twin brother.
A Maronite Catholic, Ata said that “without faith, I could not bear what happened that day.”
Cardinal Rai expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for remembering the 2020 port tragedy at the conclusion of the Angelus on July 30 at the Vatican.
“I renew my prayer for the victims and their families, who are seeking truth and justice, and I hope that Lebanon’s complex crisis may find a solution worthy of the history and values of that people. Let us not forget that Lebanon is also a message,” Pope Francis said.
