Vatican newspaper decries Israeli attack on Catholic school building in Lebanon

May 04, 2026

The Vatican newspaper decried the Israeli army’s attack on a Catholic school building in Yaroun, Lebanon.

“In the last few hours, Israeli bulldozers have torn down the Holy Savior Christian School in the village of Yaroun—located in the Bint Jbeil district—which also housed the living quarters of the nuns dedicated to the spiritual and cultural growth of hundreds of students,” Federico Piana reported in the most prominent article in the newspaper’s May 2 edition. “Yet, those mechanical shovels—instruments of destruction—operated within a ghost village.”

“Yaroun had already been uninhabited and in ruins for some time—ever since the previous war of 2024 against the Shiite Islamist armed group Hezbollah—when Israel had partially razed it to the ground,” Piana continued. “Consequently, the population had already been forced to abandon their homes and lands back then.”

Piana commented:

And this “cleanup” always follows the same script: the village populations are ordered to evacuate, and then the area is subjected to bombing. Only subsequently do the bulldozers move in, leveling every house—leveling everything in their path. Every historical memory is being erased.

All that remains is a spectral, anonymous landscape—a place without a past. Along that “yellow line,” there are already more than 50 such villages. All are empty; many await demolition, while others have already been razed.

A resident of one of the three remaining Christian villages in the area told L’Osservatore Romano that “here, thank God, many structures are still standing; however, we are completely encircled—under siege. We cannot leave. Milk for the children and medicines are beginning to run short.”

The Times of Israel subsequently reported that the Israeli military “acknowledged it caused some damage to a Catholic convent in southern Lebanon while working to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, but denied it ‘demolished’ the site with bulldozers.”

 

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Further information:

• Libano del sud: Villaggi rasi al suolo (L'Osservatore Romano, 5/2/26)
• IDF admits damaging Catholic convent in southern Lebanon, denies site demolished (The Times of Israel, 5/2/26)