Papal envoy ‘witnesses’ unprecedented suffering

VATICAN CITY

Cardinal Robert Sarah, an envoy sent by the pope to Lebanon in lieu of a Vatican mission to Syria, said that he had witnessed “unprecedented suffering” among refugees fleeing the civil war.

“I arrived at the border with Syria and, unfortunately, I saw unprecedented suffering,” Sarah said. “A mother wanted to entrust to me her 4-month-old son, because she had left her husband behind in Syria and didn’t know when she would see him again. Christian refugees asked me to beg the pope to help them return home,” Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying.

Sarah was dispatched to Lebanon by Pope Benedict XVI to meet refugees and Christian community leaders after the Vatican decided that it was potentially dangerous and politically risky to send a planned mission to Syria.