Minneapolis church hosts annual Lebanese Festival amid tension in Middle East
MINNEAPOLIS — There was culture, pride and a lot of needed joy.
St. Maron's Catholic Church on Sunday wrapped up its 33rd annual Lebanese Festival, a celebration of the Middle Eastern nation on the Mediterranean that in recent months has been caught in the crossfire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
"What unites us is love," Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun told WCCO. "What unites us is brotherhood and sisterhood."
Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets across a wider and deeper area of northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa. The barrage overnight set off air raid sirens across northern Israel, sending thousands of people scrambling into shelters.
Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Kassem said his group is now in an ″open-ended battle of reckoning" with Israel, threatening more displacement for people in Israel's north.
The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah's top leaders. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people — including two children — and wounding around 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which hasn't confirmed or denied responsibility.
Maroun, himself, said he fled Lebanon in the 1980s, when Hezbollah gained prominence. More than half of his parishioners, he added, immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon to escape political unrest and economic crisis.
The festival, he said, was purposely apolitical.
"Come here because you need to be covered with love, covered with peace. Come here to be refreshed and renewed here," he said. "We're showing the other side of the coin. Life is more than killing and fighting. There is something unique about the community there and here, that we can have fun and live together in peace and joy."
Chris and Sarah Hayek, who moved to Minneapolis from Beirut two years ago, echoed that sentiment.
"What's happening in Lebanon now, the economic crisis, the wars, this is not us," Chris Hayek said. "This is not us. We are really happy here. We're the people that always enjoy life."