Pope in Lebanon: United for peace

(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict is back at the papal summer residence at Castelgandolfo after returning last night from a 3 day apostolic visit to Lebanon. Before leaving the country, the Holy Father in a farewell speech thanked the people of this nation for their cordiality and enthusiasm and prayed that Lebanon “may live in peace and courageously resist all that could destroy or undermine that peace".

Our correspondent Tracey McClure followed the event at the Rafik Hariri International Airport. She also takes a look back at this unforgettable visit. Listen

This has been a visit that many thought would never happen. To a region in turmoil, Pope Benedict took what countless inside and outside his Church say was a courageous trip that could have cost him dearly. Even dearer to him though, is this suffering land which gave birth to Jesus Christ and today’s 2.2 billion strong Christian community.
But in today’s Middle East and North Africa, there may be more olive trees than Christians who struggle to maintain a presence of 4% of the population. It was from these regions that bishops gathered in their 2010 synod to discuss the challenges facing their churches and come up with proposals how to face them.
And though this was in part a State visit with enormous popular support from Muslims and Christians all around, it was also a hugely important pastoral one. The Pope came to deliver to the region’s bishops the Apostolic Exhortation concluding their synod and providing a roadmap towards the future of the Catholic Church here. And what a drive that is likely to be.
Taking his leave of President Michel Sleiman, a Christian who came – even unexpectedly - to every public event on this trip, Pope Benedict said in visiting here “it was as if Peter himself had come.”
And with this Pope, the See of Peter did return home to the Middle East - this Holy Land, by virtue of this trip to Lebanon. A Lebanon cited dozens of times in the bible and present, Pope Benedict said, “in the sanctuary of God” in shrines built and decorated with Lebanese cedars.
A nation made up of 18 different faith confessions, may Lebanon continue he said, “to be a place where men and women can live in harmony and peace…in order to give the world not only a witness to the presence of God, but also to the communion between people whatever their political, social or religious standpoint.”
For of all places in this region, and despite occasional tensions, perhaps only Lebanon best lives out the equality and freedoms of religion and of conscience of all its citizens, regardless of their faith.
The Pope prayed that Lebanon “may live in peace and courageously resist all that could destroy or undermine that peace.” He hoped the nation would continue to permit the plurality of religions and “not listen to the voices of those who wish to prevent it.”
For his part, President Sleiman thanked the Pope for his love of this country and his efforts in support of Lebanon’s stability and coexistence. In urging people here to take the Apostolic Exhortation to heart, he said there can be no progress without peace and no peace without justice at a time in which human dignity is under threat in many neighboring Arab countries.
Despite the turbulence and the violence however, he said “there is nevertheless hope for democracy, liberty and peace.” The President admitted the Pope was leaving to the Lebanese a big responsibility and promised on behalf of them to do whatever it takes so that Lebanon can remain a country of dialogue and openness, a witness to the truth, to life and mutual respect.
This mutual respect could not have been more evident in the scenes we saw at the Presidential Palace where the Pope met Lebanon’s chief Muslim and Christian political leaders, representatives of the world of culture and religious leaders. The Orthodox priest I spoke to today called that meeting historic – never in his country’s history had all these figures gathered to meet in that seat of power.
And one couldn’t remain but moved at the sight of Pope Benedict cupping in his, the hands of Muslim clerics as they lingered to say their own private words of farewell at the airport. The Pope thanked them in particular for their presence, commenting how much it contributed to the success of his journey.
Indeed, all the Lebanese contributed to making this visit a real success – the Muslim and Christian young people who turned out in the thousands in a youth gathering Saturday to pray with the Pope for peace and the courage to face an uncertain future. The Christians from the region’s seven different Catholic rites who gathered together with Orthodox, Protestants and Muslims for Sunday mass on Beirut’s waterfront – a tangible sign of the desire for communion and brotherhood and a call to action to the region’s faithful to stay in these lands and work for the common good in their church and in society.
He was a pope bearing a message of peace, calling for the gift of peaceful hearts, the silencing of weapons and the end to violence in Syria and across the Middle East. He was a father to Christians young and old here, listening to their worries, giving them hope – telling them: we’re in this together, do not be afraid.
In Beirut, I’m Tracey McClure