BEIRUT, Lebanon (RNS) – For Eissam, a 24-year-old Lebanese man who is battling drug addiction, the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross in Jal ed Dib, just North of Beirut, and the Catholic nuns who run it are nothing short of family.
“The sisters here are like our sisters and brothers and mothers and parents for us. They care about us,” he told Religion News Service in an interview at the facility on Monday (Dec. 1).
Eissam, the full names of the patients are not shared for privacy reasons, was among the small group that greeted Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday (Dec. 2) when he visited the hospital on his two-day trip Lebanon. He hopes that by coming to the hospital, the pope will help reduce the stigma that still surrounds mental illness, addiction and disability in the country.
“What is lived in this place stands as a clear reminder to all — to your country, but also to the whole human family. We cannot forget those who are most fragile,” Leo said during his visit, praising the work of the nuns at …