“Let us turn now to Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady of Lebanon. Let us ask her to intercede with her divine Son for you and, more particularly, for the people of Syria and the neighbouring countries, imploring the gift of peace.”
-Benedict XVI – Angelus, Beirut, September 16, 2012
When Pope Benedict XVI stepped off the plane in Beirut on September 14, he said he had come to Lebanon, and to the Middle East in general, as a “pilgrim of peace.” In five major talks over the next three days, the Pope repeatedly called for peace and underscored the role of Christians in promoting it. Yet his most eloquent message of hope to the troubled region lay not in the diplomatic language of his public statements, but in his very presence and the response it evoked from his hosts.
Throughout his trip, Pope Benedict limited himself to general statements of principle on the most contentious political issues, and he avoided some topics altogether.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, east of Beirut (CNS photo).
His insistence that religious freedom is a basic human right and a prerequisite for social harmony was a bold statement in the context of a region where most countries restrict and even prohibit the practice of any faith besides Islam. But like the document he came to Lebanon to present, a collection of his reflections on the 2010 special Synod of Bishops dedicated to Christians in the Middle East, the Pope said nothing specific about where and how the region’s Christians are regularly deprived of that right.
The Pope twice the deplored the human cost of the civil war in neighboring Syria, but his only practical recommendation for an end to the fighting there was a neutral call to end the importation of military arms, which he called a “grave sin.” With regard to religiously inspired violence, the Pope made a single generic reference to terrorism and a possible allusion to the subject in the statement that “authentic faith does not lead to death.”
Pope Benedict said nothing at all about the incendiary subject that dominated news coverage in the run-up to his trip: an American-made anti-Islamic film that had inspired often-violent protests in at least a dozen Muslim countries, including Lebanon.
Awareness of that furor no doubt heightened the caution with which the Pope treated the most volatile topics during his trip. Ironically, the crisis may also have helped him to get his message across.
Benedict XVI’s visit to Lebanon: Beirut and Harissa (Sept.14); Baabda, Bzommar and Bkerkè (Sept.15); Beirut, Harissa and Charfet (Sept.16).
With turmoil over the movie spreading across the Middle East, the papal visit suddenly became a much more dramatic and thus more appealing story to the secular press, which probably gave it more coverage as a result, observed Msgr. John E. Kozar, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, who attended the papal events.
For the Lebanese, the Pope’s willingness to travel in spite of security concerns — he told reporters on the plane from Rome that he had not considered canceling the trip and that no one had advised him to do so — powerfully underscored his commitment to the country and the region.
“The mere fact that the Holy Father came at this difficult moment is an indication that Christians here are not forgotten,” said Habib Malik, a professor of history at Lebanese American University.
The Pope’s visit served as a showcase for Lebanon, which for years was a model of peaceful coexistence and religious freedom in the Middle East. The show of enthusiasm across sectarian and political lines, in a nation still recovering from a 1975-90 civil war, was a dramatic statement of unity to the outside world and to the Lebanese themselves.
Lebanon’s location: it is bordered by Syria (North and East) and Israel (South).
Epitomizing the welcome by Muslim leaders, Lebanon’s grand mufti gave Pope Benedict a written message stating that “any attack on any Christian citizen is an attack on Islam.” And as Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper reported September 17, Lebanon President Michel Suleiman cited the unanimity among political factions over the weekend in arguing that the “way to capitalize on the Pope’s visit is via dialogue.”
Pope Benedict would no doubt agree, while limiting his short-term expectations. As he told the president in his arrival speech, Lebanese society’s “equilibrium, which is presented everywhere as an example, is extremely delicate. Sometimes it seems about to snap like a bow which is overstretched or submitted to pressures which are too often partisan, even selfish, contrary and extraneous to Lebanese harmony and gentleness.”
What precisely those pressures might be, the Pope prudently declined to say.
Youths carry a large cross during a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Bkerke, Lebanon, September 15.
“Following Jesus means taking up one’s cross and walking in his footsteps, along a difficult path which leads not to earthly power or glory but, if necessary, to self-abandonment, to losing one’s life for Christ and the Gospel in order to save it. We are assured that this is the way to the resurrection, to true and definitive life with God…”
—Benedict XVI
Mass, Beirut, September 16, 2012
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