Pope Leo XIV has chosen to intervene today, Sunday 30 November, with clear words on the conflict in the Middle East. “The Holy See has supported the two-state solution for several years” said the Pontiff during a dialogue with the media on the papal flight, which was broadcast by TV Duemila. “We know that Israel still does not accept that solution, but it is the only viable one. We are also friends of Israel and try to be a mediating voice. We talked about this with Erdogan and he agrees with this proposal.”
The central role of Türkiye
Turkey has an “important role” for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine. “In coming to Turkey, and now to Lebanon, there was naturally a special theme and that is to be a messenger of peace, to want to promote peace throughout the region. Turkey – said Leone – has many qualities from this point of view, it is a country that has a Muslim majority and also has the presence of numerous Christian communities, a small minority, and even people of other religions are able to live in peace. It is an example, I would say, of what we are all looking for throughout the world. Beyond of religious differences, beyond ethnic differences, beyond many other differences, people can live in peace. Turkey itself has had various moments in its history in which it has not always been able to do so and already having lived this experience and having also been able to speak with President Erdogan about peace I think is an important element, a noteworthy element of my visit”.
On the Ukrainian side, Leone announces that “already a few months ago with the possibility of dialogue between the Ukrainian and Russian parties, the president – said Prevost – helped a lot in convening the two parties. Unfortunately we have not yet seen a solution, but today again there are concrete proposals for peace. And we hope that President Erdogan with his relationship with the president of Ukraine, Russia and the United States, can help in this sense to promote dialogue, ceasefire and see how to resolve this conflict, this war in Ukraine.”
The Pope’s speech in Lebanon
A Pope visibly moved behind the windows of the covered Popemobile, in the pouring rain. Leone thus arrives at the presidential palace of President Joseph Aoun, welcomed in a spectacular and moving manner with a scenography, which ends with the flight of a dove of peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers! It is a great joy to meet you and visit this land where ‘peace’ is much more than a word: here peace is a desire and a vocation, it is a gift and an always open construction site”, says Leone.
Prevost addresses the authorities: “You are invested with authority in this country, each in your own spheres and with specific roles. It is in light of this authority that I wish to address to you the words of Jesus, chosen as the fundamental inspiration of this journey of mine: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’. Of course, there are millions of Lebanese, here and throughout the world, who serve peace silently, day after day. However, for you, who have important institutional tasks within this people, a special beatitude is destined if you can do everything say that I have put the objective of peace first. I would like, in our meeting, to reflect a little with you on what it means to be peacemakers in very complex, conflictual and uncertain circumstances”.
“The Church is not only concerned about the dignity of those who move towards countries other than their own, but wants no one to be forced to leave and that anyone who wishes can return safely” underlines the Pope speaking to the Lebanese authorities and civil society. “Human mobility – he recalls – represents an immense opportunity for meeting and mutual enrichment, but it does not erase the special bond that unites each person to certain places, to which they owe their identity in a completely peculiar way. And peace always grows in a concrete vital context, made up of geographical, historical and spiritual ties”. Hence the warning: “It is necessary to encourage those who favor them and feed on them, and not give in to localism and nationalism”.
The Pontiff highlights these aspects by outlining another characteristic of peace workers: “They dare to stay, even when it costs sacrifice. There come times when it is easier to flee, or, simply, it is more convenient to go elsewhere. It really takes courage and foresight to stay or return to one’s own country, deeming even rather difficult conditions worthy of love and dedication. We know that uncertainty, violence, poverty and many other threats produce here, as in other places in the world, a haemorrhage of young people and families future elsewhere, despite the great pain of leaving one’s homeland. It is certainly necessary to recognize that much positive comes to all of you from the Lebanese scattered around the world. However, we must not forget that staying with your people and collaborating day by day in the development of the civilization of love and peace remains something very appreciable”.
The Pontiff pays homage to the Lebanese: “You are a people who do not succumb, but who, in the face of trials, always know how to be reborn with courage. Your resilience is an essential characteristic of authentic peacemakers: the work of peace, in fact, is a continuous beginning again”. “Ask yourselves where the formidable energy comes from that has never left your people on the ground, devoid of faith in the future. You are a varied country, a community of communities, but united by a common language. I am not only referring to the Levantine Arabic that you speak, through which your great past has scattered pearls of inestimable value, I am referring above all to the language of hope, the one that has always allowed you to start again” concludes the Pontiff.
President of Lebanon to the Pontiff: “Tell the world that we will not die”
“Holy Father, we implore you to tell the world that we will not die, nor leave, nor despair, nor give up,” said the Lebanese president, Aoun, in his speech before the Pope. “We will stay here,” he said, “we will breathe freedom, we will invent joy, perfect love, we will love innovation, we will embrace modernity and we will create every day a life worth living. We urge you to tell the world that we will remain the only place of dialogue in our region and I dare say In the whole world, where this community can rally behind the successor of Peter, as united representatives of all the children of Abraham, with all their convictions, their sacred values and their common beliefs”.