The Pope Leo XIV He asked this Sunday that the migrant fleeing “absurd and merciless conflicts” never feel rejected, “but welcomed,” in his speech at the Harissa sanctuary, where he met with the bishops and religious men and women of the country, on his second day of visit to Lebanon.
On this hill, a place of pilgrimage for the Lebanese where the large sculpture of Our Lady of Lebanon is located, Leo XVI encouraged the country’s Catholics, who have become a minority as they make up less than 30% of the population, to follow their faith: “even when the noise of weapons resounds around us and the demands of daily life become a challenge,” he said.
He was received with great enthusiasm by the nearly 2,000 attendees with shouts of joy and “Long live the Pope” and then he listened to the testimonies of Lebanese Catholics and also the situation of the migrants who in recent years have arrived in the country, especially Syrians and Palestinians, fleeing wars.
Father Youhanna recounted life in Debbabiyé, the small town on the border with Syria, where “despite extreme need and under the threat of bombing, Christians and Muslims, Lebanese and refugees from the other side of the border, live peacefully together and help each other.”
The American pontiff spoke, in French, of responsibility towards young people and stated that “it is important to favor their presence, also in ecclesial structures, appreciating their contribution of novelty and giving them space. And it is necessary, even among the rubble of a world with painful failures, to offer them concrete and viable perspectives of rebirth and growth for the future.”
He also heard the testimony of Loren, a Filipino who helps migrants. In the country, of only 5.8 million inhabitants, there are nearly 1.5 million refugees and migrants.
The Filipino volunteer told the story of James and Lela, Sudanese, who had to escape the war while she was pregnant and gave birth during the trip and were welcomed in Lebanon,
“What they have experienced forces us to commit ourselves so that no one has to flee their country due to absurd and ruthless conflicts, and so that whoever knocks on the door of our communities never feels rejected, but rather welcomed with the words that Loren herself quoted: “Welcome home!”,” the pope stated.
Among the religious seated in the sanctuary to listen to the pope, especially Maronite Catholic priests, was Father Manuel, who has lived in Buenos Aires for several years.
This religious explained to EFE that the Pope’s arrival in Lebanon is “a blessing” because “he will know the reality of our country that suffers a lot, but has a lot of hope and fervor and we hope that one day the Sun will rise for our country and for the entire Middle East.”
The Maronite father spoke of the almost 16 million Lebanese who left the country in the past and also of the arrival of refugees because, although they were received “with a good heart”, there are beginning to be problems due to the economic crisis.
Father Luis Montes, an Argentine from the congregation of the Incarnate Word, who is a missionary in a center for homeless people a few kilometers from this sanctuary, highlighted to EFE the importance of a pope’s visit to a nation so hit by war and the economic crisis, and not only for Catholics but also for Muslims who have great affection for the pontiff.
Because, he explained, in the country there is an important coexistence with Muslims and it is the country with the greatest unity among religions in the Middle East, while recalling the words of John Paul II when he visited the country in 1997 who said that “Lebanon is not a country, it is a message” for the world.