by aleteia.org -- We need a miracle to change the hard hearts of those who govern [Lebanon],” Fr. Georges Breidi, a Maronite priest, told I.MEDIA on September 2. He is the priest with the big Lebanese flag that Pope Francis called to his side during the general audience as he announced that Friday, September 4, will be a global day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon. Father Breidi is a member of the Lebanese Maronite Missionary Congregation. Along with about 500 other pilgrims, he was able to attend the first general audience to be held in public since Italy began its lockdown last spring. Fr. Breidi has been a student in Rome for four years; he could not have imagined the scene that would occur. Knowing that the Argentinean pontiff was particularly affected by the situation in his country, he went to this audience with a flag. “I was almost sure he was going to bless it,” he said. While the Bishop of Rome did indeed kiss the flag when he arrived, the story didn’t end there. At the end of the audience, with the young priest at his side, the pontiff delivered a long plea for Lebanon. “I hope that the Holy Father’s message can change something; but to tell the truth we need a miracle to change the hard hearts of those who govern the country, our politicians, who have come to this point because of their corruption,” Father Breidi told I.MEDIA after the audience. “For more than 100 years, Lebanon has been a wealthy class in the Middle East, the Switzerland of the region, but today we’re facing a great catastrophe. I hope that the Holy Father’s message can change hearts so that peace may come.”

by english.aawsat.com —US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that any new Lebanese government must pursue fundamental reforms to benefit the …

by AP -- BEIRUT— One of Lebanon's most prominent philanthropists and a pioneer defender of the country's heritage, Lady Yvonne Sursock Cochrane, has died from injuries she suffered in the massive Aug. 4 explosion that ripped through Beirut. She was 98. The family said Lady Cochrane passed away on Monday from her injuries. She was at home, at her family’s Sursock Palace, one of Beirut's landmarks, when the explosion happened last month. The palace, a storied building that took 20 years to restore after the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, was badly damaged in the blast. At least 190 people were killed in the explosion at the Port of Beirut that also injured more than 6,000 and damaged tens of thousands of homes, including a number of the city's heritage buildings. Lady Cochrane was born in Beirut on May 18, 1922. She is a member of the wealthy Sursock Greek Orthodox family, which was originally from the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, and settled here in the 18th century. She married Sir Desmond Cochrane in 1946.

Her family built a number of residential buildings, schools and hospitals in Beirut's eastern neighborhood of Achrafieh, where an area is named after the Sursocks. One of Beirut's best art museums owned by her family was also damaged in the blast. In 1960, she set up the Association for Protecting Natural Sites and Old Buildings in Lebanon to preserve the country's cultural heritage and past. The association campaigned to preserve historic buildings, the National Museum, and turned restored sites into cultural sites in Beirut and other cities. Lady Cochrane was concerned about the demise of Beirut's architectural wealth and its mismanagement by the state. She fought against the destruction of old houses and real estate developers who sought to change the character of Beirut. “Beirut lives by the wind that comes from the sea,” she said in a 2008 interview with Monocle, criticizing the reconstruction of downtown Beirut, including building skyscrapers at the seafront, after the end of the civil war.

by CGTN with input from AFP - Reuters --French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday Lebanese political leaders had agreed to form a government of experts in the next two weeks and that he expected the government to start delivering on a roadmap of reforms within six to eight weeks. "There is no blank check," Macron told a news conference in the Lebanese capital. If reforms, including an audit of the central bank, were not being passed within that deadline, international aid would be withheld, he added. Macron was in Beirut for a second time since an August 4 explosion which killed more than 180 people, laid waste to entire city districts and fuelled popular rage against the country's political elite. He attended muted celebrations marking the centenary of Greater Lebanon, shortly after political leaders settled on a new prime minister, Mustapha Adib, to form a cabinet and lead the country out of political turmoil and an economic crisis that was already crippling the country before the portside blast. "What all political parties without exception have committed to this evening right here, is that the formation of this government will not take more than 15 days," he said.

Macron set himself an ambitious goal for his return visit: to push for deep change, but without being seen as meddling in the former French mandate. "This is the last chance for the Lebanese system," he warned earlier. "It's a risky bet I'm making, I am aware of it... I am putting the only thing I have on the table: my political capital," he told news website Politico. Macron spoke to the press after meeting top Lebanese politicians, while clashes erupted in central Beirut between security forces and protesters rejecting the new prime minister. One held a poster aloft urging Macron: "Do not cooperate with the corrupt and criminal." The French leader arrived Monday, just hours after Adib, a little-known 48-year-old academic and former ambassador to Germany, was designated to form a government. (With input from AFP, Reuters)