In Qlayaa, in Marjayoun District, the local leaders asked the Apostolic Nuncio Paolo Borgia on Saturday, November 7, to continue supporting the inhabitants. They call for specific needs: access to land that is still difficult to reach, sell agricultural production, finance heating and reduce school fees. The representative of the Holy See visited the locality after a stop in Deir Mimas.
Mayor Hanna Daher presented these requests at a post-mass meeting at St George’s Church. He thanked the nuncio for his humanitarian interventions and for the steps that, he said, had enabled people and farmers to join their plots. He hoped that such efforts would extend to land where access was still impossible.
Crops for sale and winter expenses
The municipal call goes beyond the delivery of point emergency. Hanna Daher cited heating, basic needs, tuition and family support. It also requested aid for the disposal of crops, including olive oil. These requests were presented as necessary conditions for keeping the inhabitants in their village.
Applications submitted to the Nuncio do not at this stage involve announced funding or a timetable for reopening access to land.
The reception reserved to Paolo Borgia had placed agriculture at the forefront. Children from the parish offered him bread and olive oil. In front of the church, people received him with a laurel crown, applause and a dove release. Municipal elected representatives and several priests attended the reception.
Borgia salutes the attachment of the inhabitants to their village
In his homily, the nuncio praised the faith and perseverance of the inhabitants in the face of the difficulties of war. He stressed their attachment to their land and their Christian and Lebanese roots. He gave them the Pope’s affection and blessing.
Paolo Borgia focused on hope, solidarity and the refusal to let fear isolate the inhabitants. He presented love for neighbor, mercy and justice as the foundations of peace.
The parish priest, Father Antonios Farah, also requested the continuation of the Holy See’s commitment. He recalled the humanitarian support, health initiatives and the monitoring of the daily difficulties brought by the nuncio. He stressed the right of the inhabitants to live in safety, to work their land, to sell their production and to raise their children.
The priest claimed that the inhabitants did not want to take up arms. He also referred to families separated from their loved ones for about 26 years and asked that the search for peace allow them to meet.
MPs Melhem Khalaf and Firas Hamdan attended the meeting in the parish hall. The municipality awarded a distinction to the nuncio. Beyond this reception, Hanna Daher asked him to continue the steps to open access to the still inaccessible plots and help producers find outlets for their oil.
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