St. George Melkite Greek Catholic Church is in ruins. White stones from the toppled walls cover the floor, next to splintered wood and tangled metal where the wooden pews stood in the once-cavernous church in the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon.
“The roof was destroyed. It was hit by a missile and then by a bomb,” said the Reverend Charles Naddaf, the parish priest, describing events related to the war last autumn between Israel and Hezbollah.
“The southern wall was also destroyed by a missile, and the northern wall was hit by an explosion.”
Yaroun is located immediately within the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon. Its inhabitants have been exposed to the brunt of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel since 8 October 2023, a day after Hamas committed massacres across Israel, sparking a war between Israel and Hamas.
Despite a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, signed 27 November 2024, drone and artillery attacks, as well as bombardments by the Israeli army, continue in Yaroun and other border villages. The Israeli military occupied these villages until 18 February this year.
Father Naddaf resumed celebrating the Divine Liturgy in Yaroun on Palm Sunday, and on 22 June, some 30 parishioners gathered in the church hall to celebrate the feast of the Divine Body, a feast on the Melkite liturgical calendar, inspired by the Latin-rite feast of Corpus Christi.
According to CNEWA-Pontifical Mission, the reconstruction of the church would cost $125,000.
“We have preliminary approval from the Archdiocese of Cologne and Missio Aachen for the repairs,” said Michel Constantin, CNEWA-Pontifical Mission’s regional director based in Beirut.
This will be the second time CNEWA-Pontifical Mission has helped rebuild St. George Church, which first sustained damages during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
“The parishioners’ houses have to be rebuilt as well,” Father Naddaf said. “Life has to return to the village.”
At the time of publication, neither water nor electricity had been restored to Yaroun, and many houses had been destroyed, making the village uninhabitable.
According to the World Bank, 24 percent of housing units across the South Governorate of Lebanon have been affected by the war. In the Melkite Greek Catholic community of Yaroun, 57 of 144 houses were “completely destroyed” and 60 families were displaced, according to CNEWA-Pontifical Mission.
Most of the town’s inhabitants are farmers who have been unable to access their land since October 2023, effectively losing their primary source of income. According to the United Nations Development Program, 81 percent of people in Lebanon’s war-affected zones report their household’s economic situation is worse than last year.
“They need food relief, of course, but they also need psychological support,” Father Naddaf said.
In Marjeyoun, about 30 miles north of Yaroun, Sacred Hearts Sister Hyam Habib said the situation is the same.
Sister Habib directs the school of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Located three miles from the demarcation line, the school closed its doors between October 2023 and January 2025. Classes continued online for its 368 displaced students, many of whom lived under relentless bombardment during that time.
“Our students came back to school in January, and for some of them, it was a source of anxiety. They were afraid to return home after school, only to find that their home had been destroyed, or their parents killed,” Sister Habib said.
The school organized collective mental health sessions and referred the most vulnerable children for therapy. According to Sister Habib, the psychosocial support provided has had a notable positive impact on the children.
The students come from various religious backgrounds, and Sister Habib said initially she was “afraid that some tensions would arise after the war.”
“On the contrary, the children have been very happy to see one another again,” she said. “This year, we insisted on the fact that whatever happens in Lebanon, we remain one heart united in fraternity.”
Sister Habib said she finds strength to pursue her community’s mission in such difficult times in the support the school receives through associations and private initiatives, allowing her to cover teacher salaries.
“Even though in war everything is negative,” she said, “we can still find seeds of positivity that mark us for life.”