Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with Lebanon to Michel Aoun, President of the country, which is going through a grave socio-economic and political crisis. According to a publication in Arabic, on the Lebanese Presidency’s social networks, the Successor of Peter’s letter was sent in response to President Aoun’s Easter message.
In the letter, the Holy Father said to the Lebanese President: “evil and death cannot have the last word in the journey of life,” adding that “faith in the Resurrection gives our hearts strength to build a better world.”
The publication also points out that the Pontiff renewed his prayers for “the Spirit of Wisdom to sustain the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, and his collaborators, and illumine their path to lead Lebanon on the way of peace, freedom, and happiness.” Finally, the Holy Father expressed his “solidarity with Lebanon, entrusting it to the care of the Virgin Mary, and extended his Blessing to “all the Lebanese people.”
Appeal to the European Union
The Commission of Episcopal Conferences of the EU (COMECE) made an appeal on May 26, 2021, to the European Union to give its support to the Lebanese people in their struggle to preserve Lebanon’s identity and social fabric, given the crisis it’s experiencing.
COMECE’s appeal is based on the concerns expressed recently by the Lebanese Church in a letter sent to the EU’s Bishops. The Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon addressed a letter to Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, COMECE’s President, expressing its concern over the dangers that the current political, social, health and economic crisis poses for the Lebanese population.
According to the local Church, the gravity of the situation is endangering the very identity of the country, forged by “encounter, plurality, and fraternity, which make it a natural place for dialogue between the different religious and cultural communities,” stated the European Commission.
Echoing Pope Francis’ repeated appeals, the Lebanese Church urges the International Community, including the EU, to support Lebanon’s population, “guaranteeing the maintenance of its individual, collective and national rights, contributing to the fight against the economic crisis, the protection of the social fabric and the preservation of Lebanon’s identity and specificity.”
The Pope and Lebanon
Last April 22, the Holy Father received in private audience the Prime Minister-designate of Lebanon, Saad Hariri. As Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office, reported, “in the course of the conversations, which lasted some thirty minutes, the Pope reiterated his closeness to the Lebanese people, living a moment of great difficulty and uncertainty, and he reminded all the political forces of their responsibility to commit themselves urgently for the benefit of the nation.”
“Reaffirming his desire to visit the country as soon as the conditions allow, “ the Bishop of Rome “hoped that Lebanon, with the help of the International Community, will embody again the ‘the strength of the cedars, the diversity that from weakness becomes strength in a great reconciled people,’ with its vocation to be a land of encounter, coexistence, and pluralism,” reads the press release.
Trip to the Country
During the press conference onboard the plane in the return flight from his Apostolic Journey to Iraq, Pope Francis reaffirmed his intention to visit Lebanon on his next trip to the Middle East. “The Patriarch (Cardinal Rai) asked me to make a stopover in Beirut on this trip, but it seemed to me that it was little, too little, a crumb, given the problem of a country that is suffering as Lebanon is. I wrote a letter and made a promise, promising that I would go to Lebanon,” he said.
Recalling that Lebanon “is suffering,” the Pontiff stressed that this nation has “the weakness of diversities, some not yet reconciled, but the strength of a great reconciled people, as the strength of the cedars.” At present, he lamented, Lebanon “is in crisis, but in a crisis — I don’t mean to offend –, in a crisis of life. However, “Lebanon is very generous when it comes to receiving refugees,” he pointed out.
