CWN reports: A Jesuit based in Beirut has told Vatican Radio that one third of the nation’s Christian population has emigrated since the 1975-76 civil war. Father Samir Khalil, SJ, said that Christians used to make up 50% of the nation’s population but now make up only 34%. His analysis conflicts with official Vatican statistics, which state that 48% of the nation’s 3.8 million residents are Catholic. Standard secular reference books place the percentage of Christians– Catholic, Orthodox, Assyrian, and Protestant– at 39%. Link to news here.
