(From our correspondents in Sydney) -"In the first greetings, the young people coming from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the other countries of the Middle East have not been mentioned. An oversight that we are sorry about complains with SIR father Gregoire Sasseen, of the eparchy of Sidon , because we are here to testify that there are still Christians in Lebanon and all over the Middle East, where the first Christian communities were born". The Lebanese group is composed of about 300 people, who decided to come to "give their testimony as well as to be encouraged in our faith", adds father Sasseen. Many young people leave Lebanon, because of the difficult political situation, and many are also in Australia, "but concludes the priest we love peace and we would like our young people not to be forced to go away, depleting the country of the best energies and talents. People, both us Christians and the Muslims, want peace, they do not love war or terrorism: it is politics that makes choices we do not understand". Maria Abdel Nour is a teacher in a Catholic school in the same diocese. She tells us that since 1997 she has taken part in all the WYDs, because "for me, who come from a country where Christians are by now a minority, it is exciting to meet people from all over the world to whom I am bonded by one faith and one Baptism".
