The Assembly of Ordinaries of the Holy Land deeply regrets the detention of His Excellency Msgr. Moussa El Hage, Archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land, for approximately twelve hours by the Lebanese security forces last Monday, as he crossed the southern border of Lebanon.
We are fully in solidarity with Bishop Moussa El Hage in the work of charity that he has been carrying out generously, for a long time, bringing regularly material aid and medicines collected by benefactors in favor of poor Lebanese families of all religions, Christians, Muslims and Druze, who are in great difficulty due to the severe economic crisis that Lebanon is currently going through. We fully support the statement made by the Maronite Patriarch in this regard.
We wish and ask to allow the Church of the Holy Land to continue its work of communion, which is in no way dictated by political considerations, and which is necessary for the maintenance of the presence of Christians in the Holy Land, by favoring their solidarity with Christians in the Middle East. We also ask to allow the Church of the Holy Land to continue to carry out freely, without interference, its humanitarian work in favor of the poor.
+ Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM
President of the ACOHL
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
Fr. Marcelo Gallardo IVE
General Secretary ACOHL
