Lebanon, a land of encounter, a land of Christian unity
“Thank you for coming” is probably one of the phrases Leo XIV heard most often during his stay in Lebanon. For many, the popular welcome given to the Pope came as a surprise. Leo XIV praised the “simplicity” of our faith. He must have rediscovered in Lebanon something of the faith of the peasants of Peru, that of a people untouched by the intellectual sophistication of the West.
“Wow! Thank you to Peru, and especially to Chiclayo, for having so beautifully shaped this man of God, so full of zeal and compassion,” wrote a retired engineer on Facebook who spent three days glued to the television. Mother Marie Makhlouf, the superior of the Sisters of the Cross, and the two women who received the comfort of his embrace, in Bkerké and at the port, would certainly agree. Now, Pope Leo XIV knows Lebanon intimately, and the people saw the joy of the encounter on their faces.
On the plane returning to Rome last Tuesday, the Pope shared some personal reflections that served as commentary on his visit. He spoke of his favorite book, The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a humble 17th-century French monk. “If there is no personal encounter with Jesus Christ, there will be ‘ethnicism disguised as Christianity,’” Pope Francis once said, speaking of peoples who call themselves Christian. A personal encounter with Jesus Christ is not as common as one might think.
A possible trip to Algeria
Leo XIV also spoke of the efforts he is making to ease tensions with Israel and the United States, both personally and through Vatican diplomacy, as the region risks a potential conflagration in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. He also confirmed that he had read the open letter addressed to him by the pro-Iranian party, to which he had essentially replied by urging them to renounce arms and choose dialogue. This response was likely conveyed by Sheikh Ali Khatib, president of the Supreme Shiite Council, whom he met at Monday's interfaith meeting, and with whom, according to the Nuncio Paolo Borghia, he subsequently had a private meeting. "Peace," Leo XIV affirmed during the Mass on the Beirut waterfront, "is both an objective and a means."
Furthermore, the Pope mentioned his desire to visit Algeria, the homeland of Saint Augustine and a land of Christian-Muslim encounter, after Lebanon. It seems, therefore, that he cherishes this desire, as did all his predecessors. Since Vatican II and the declaration “Nostra Aetate,” the universal Church has made constant efforts to promote dialogue between the Christian and Muslim worlds. This effort has finally borne fruit in the joint declaration on fraternity in Abu Dhabi (2019) and in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, which reiterated and expanded upon its essence.
The Ecumenical Perspective
Finally, the Pope spoke of the ecumenical perspective shared by his pilgrimage to ancient Nicaea, the birthplace of the Creed, and to Lebanon. Here too, Leo XIV follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, particularly Benedict XVI, who, in 2012, by presenting the apostolic exhortation from the Synod on the Middle East to the Eastern Churches from Lebanon, entrusted to the Land of the Cedars, the heartland of all Christians in the Middle East, the task of “gathering into unity the scattered children of God.” “It is the one Church of Christ that expresses itself in the variety of liturgical, spiritual, cultural, and disciplinary traditions of the six venerable Eastern Catholic Churches sui juris, as well as in the Latin Tradition,” he said at the opening Mass of the Synod in Rome in 2010. “It is this inner perspective that guided me on my apostolic journeys to Turkey, the Holy Land—Jordan, Israel, and Palestine—and Cyprus, where I was able to experience firsthand the joys and concerns of the Christian communities.” Since then, there have been Francis’s trips to Cairo, Iraq, and Bahrain.
But in a Lebanon whose sovereignty had been destroyed by a Hezbollah completely subservient to Iran, delivered into the hands of an unscrupulous oligarchy and senseless internal rivalries among Christian leaders, the Maronite Church was placed at the time before a task that overwhelmed it and was unable to fulfill the mission entrusted to it. Moreover, the Churches singled out by Benedict XVI, due to a paralyzing clericalism, still need to learn today to respect one another, to discern their respective charisms, to listen to one another, and to work together. As Cardinal Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, so aptly put it, in light of what is happening in Gaza, whose presence in Lebanon during the papal visit was noted: “We are no longer called to build structures, but relationships.” Lebanon, a land of good relations
ns and of the "living together" Islamo-Christian, must also become the pioneering land of Christian unity.
“We are no longer called upon to build structures, but relationships.” Lebanon, a land of good relations and of Muslim-Christian “living together,” must also become the pioneering land of Christian unity.