Pope’s historic trip to Beirut, Lebanon concludes

By John V Tauro
Bellevision Media Network

17 September 2012: Pope Benedict XVI arrived in his Popemobile to lead an open-air mass in the Lebanese capital Beirut. Pope Benedict XVI prayed that leaders in the Middle East work towards peace reconciliation, in his homily at an open air mass on Beirut’s waterfront.

 

 

Pope Benedict was speaking at an open-air Mass on Beirut’s Mediterranean seafront attended by 350,000 worshippers, according to the organizers’ estimate, and leaders of Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim communities including from militant Shi’ite group Hezbollah. Peace between warring factions and among the many religious groups in the Middle East has been a central theme of his visit to Lebanon, along with his call to Christians not to leave the region despite war and growing pressure from radical Islamists. Lebanon, torn apart by 1975-1990 sectarian civil war, is a religious mosaic of more than four million people whose Muslim majority includes Sunnis, Shi’ites, Alawites and Druze.

“In a world where violence constantly leaves behind its grim trail of death and destruction, to serve justice and peace is urgently necessary,” Pope Benedict said at the Mass, praying for “Middle East servants of peace and reconciliation…This is an essential testimony which Christians must render here, in cooperation with all people of good will,” he said. Pope Benedict appealed on Friday for an end to the import of weapons into Syria, branding it a “grave sin” and saying a halt to the arms flow could help end the civil war.