Pope: Silence the weapons, cease all violence

(Vatican Radio) From Beirut’s waterfront, beneath the outstretched arms of Our Lady of Lebanon, Pope Benedict XVI raised an urgent and heartfelt appeal to global and regional powers on Sunday, to silence the weapons of war and cease all violence. Listen to Emer McCarthy's report:

In his Angelus address before 350 thousand people drawn from across the 21 Churches of the Middle East, on the final day of his Apostolic Voyage to Lebanon, the Pope spoke of the Syrian conflict and unrest plaguing the region. He implored the gift of peace there where “the din of weapons continues to make itself heard”.

The Pope spoke of the innocent victims of this violence and hatred that invades peoples lives, particularly women and children asking: “Why so much horror? Why so many dead?”.

And he appealed to the international community and Arab countries that, “as brothers, they might propose workable solutions respecting the dignity, the rights and the religion of every human person!”.

The Pope concluded “Those who wish to build peace must cease to see in the other an evil to be eliminated. It is not easy to see in the other a person to be respected and loved, and yet this is necessary if peace is to be built, if fraternity is desired”.

Earlier, at the end of Mass, the Pope handed his “roadmap” for the future of Christianity in the region to the leaders of the Eastern Churches. He expressed the hope that the post-Synodal exhortation will be a guide to strengthen communion in faith, hope and charity among the communities present throughout the Middle East, so as to make credible the Christian witness in the Land that first saw Christ’s actions and heard his words.