Lebanese pray for kin

Joe Karam, a lawyer from Lebanon, boarded a plane for Chicago July 12, with a colleague set to join him on the next available flight.

But, Mr. Karam’s flight was the last to leave the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport before the facility was attacked by Israeli planes last week. Now Mr. Karam, 37, is stranded thousands of miles away from his family and friends who are still in the war-torn country.

“It’s a sad situation,” Mr. Karam said yesterday. “I flew from Beirut … on the last plane before the airport was hit. My colleague was to follow me in the next plane, but he couldn’t because the runway was bombed.”

Mr. Karam was one of several hundred people who attended a special Mass yesterday at Our Lady Of Lebanon Maronite Church in Northwest, where they prayed for peace.

The church, which was established in 1966 to serve the Lebanese Catholic community in the D.C. area, serves about 400 families. More than 71,000 Lebanese Catholics live in the United States, according to the 2006 Official Catholic Directory.

The Mass — celebrated by Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir, the patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church visiting from Bkerke, Lebanon — called for peace in Lebanon, which has been rocked by a week of deadly fighting with Israel.

The Israeli military went on the offensive after Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid last week.

Georgette Ammons said her mother had been visiting from Lebanon and returned the day before Israeli jets struck the airport.

“We can’t believe she’s still alive,” Mrs. Ammons said while cuddling her 5-month-old baby Marylynn after the service.

Her relief is tempered with worry about the safety of loved ones still possibly in danger there.

“All my friends, all my brothers, all my family are in Lebanon,” Mrs. Ammons said in a nervous whisper.

Cardinal Sfeir and Archbishop Wuerl denounced the recent violence in the region.

“As Christians, we believe that war is not inevitable,” Cardinal Sfeir told those who attended the Mass. “People can choose war and people can choose peace.”

Archbishop Wuerl said the retaliatory acts of violence only perpetuates a deadly spiral that ultimately does not rectify the dispute.

“Violence, simply, is the one thing that is not working,” he said. “An eye for an eye, and soon everyone will be blind. Give peace a chance.”

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