By Joshua McElwee
BEIRUT, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Pope Leo urged political leaders in Lebanon on Sunday to make peace their highest priority in a forceful appeal in a country that remains a target of Israeli airstrikes on the second leg of his first overseas trip as Catholic leader.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, arrived in Beirut from a four-day visit to Turkey where he warned that humanity’s future was at risk because of the world’s unusual number of bloody conflicts and condemned violence in the name of religion.
Addressing a presidential palace chamber packed with politicians and religious leaders from Lebanon’s many sects, he opened his speech by repeating Jesus’ words “blessed are the peacemakers”.
DEVASTATING CONFLICT
Leo said Lebanon must now persevere with peace efforts despite facing a “highly complex, conflictual and uncertain” regional situation in a speech attended by President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and other leaders.
“In our country and in our region there is much anguish and many people in pain,” Aoun said, adding that Lebanon was a country “where Christians and Muslims live, different but equal”.
Hours before Leo’s arrival, crowds gathered along the roads from the airport to the presidential palace, waving Lebanese and Vatican flags.
Lebanon, which has the largest share of Christians in the Middle East, has been rocked by the spillover of the Gaza conflict, as Israel and the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim militant group Hezbollah went to war, culminating in a devastating Israeli offensive.
“We want him to plant peace in the hearts of politicians so that we can live a comfortable life in Lebanon,” said Randa Sahyoun, a Lebanese woman living in Qatar who travelled home for the pope’s visit.
Leo said it takes tenacity to build peace, adding that “the commitment and love for peace know no fear in the face of apparent defeat”.
Leaders in Lebanon, which hosts 1 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees and is also struggling to recover from years of economic crisis, are worried Israel will dramatically escalate its strikes in coming months.
Israel says its continued strikes since last year’s ceasefire agreement are to prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing military capabilities and posing a renewed threat to communities in northern Israel.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Friday that he hoped Leo’s visit would help bring an end to Israeli attacks. Hezbollah’s most senior member of parliament Mohammad Raad attended Leo’s speech.
BUSY SCHEDULE
Lebanon’s diverse communities have also welcomed the papal trip, with leading Druze cleric Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna saying Lebanon “needs the glimmer of hope represented by this visit”.
He was driven in the enclosed popemobile, arriving at the palace in heavy rain with crowds under white umbrellas cheering and a welcome band performing a traditional dance while beating large drums.
Leo, a relative unknown on the world stage before becoming pope in May, is being closely watched as he makes his first speeches overseas and interacts for the first time with people outside mainly Catholic Italy.
Leo, 70 and in good health, has a crowded itinerary in Lebanon, visiting five cities and towns from Sunday to Tuesday, when he returns to Rome. Leo will not travel to the south, the target of Israeli strikes, and he did not mention Israel in his speech.
His schedule includes a prayer at the site of a 2020 chemical explosion at the Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused damage worth billions.
He will also lead an outdoor Mass on the Beirut waterfront and visit a psychiatric hospital, one of the few mental health facilities in Lebanon, where carers and residents are eagerly anticipating his arrival.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily, Raghed Waked and Ahmed Kerdi in Beirut; Editing by Daren Butler, William Mallard, Tomasz Janowski and Giles Elgood)
