BEIRUT: Pope Leo urged leaders from Lebanon’s many diverse religious sects on Monday to unite to heal the country after years of conflict, political paralysis and economic crisis that have prompted waves of migration abroad. Leo, the first US pope, met members of Christian, Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim, and Druze communities, and called on them to show that people of different traditions “can live together and build a country united by respect and dialogue”.
The pope, who is on what he has described as a mission of peace, has urged Lebanon’s leaders to persevere with peace efforts in the aftermath of last year’s devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah, and continued Israeli strikes.
The 70-year-old pontiff, elected in May, is visiting Lebanon until Tuesday on the second leg of his first overseas trip, which started in Turkey.
At Beirut’s central Martyrs’ Square near its large, blue-domed mosque, the pope told religious leaders they must be “builders of peace”, working to confront intolerance and overcome violence.
Lebanese representatives of the Alawite and Druze communities, which have suffered through bouts of sectarian violence in neighbouring Syria this year, spoke at the event. In the crowd, Alawite Mohammed Saleh said his community needed peace, protection and dignity. “We ask him humbly to remember in his prayer the Alawite community in the Middle East,” Saleh said.
Leo also visited the tomb of St. Charbel, a Catholic saint revered across the region, before heading to Harissa, a Catholic shrine on a mountaintop overlooking the Mediterranean just north of Beirut.
People at the shrine, known for its towering statue of the Virgin Mary looking out towards Beirut, ululated as the pope arrived, pressing in to greet him with shouts of “Viva il Papa” (Long live the pope).