IQNA – Pope Leo XIV attended an interfaith meeting in Martyr’s Square in Beirut that had Lebanon’s Christian patriarchs and Sunni, Shia, and Druze spiritual leaders gathered under a tent.
After listening to hymns and readings from the Bible and Quran, Leo XIV praised Lebanon’s tradition of religious tolerance as a beacon for “the divine gift of peace” in the region.
“In an age when coexistence can seem like a distant dream, the people of Lebanon, while embracing different religions, stand as a powerful reminder that fear, distrust and prejudice do not have the final word, and that unity, reconciliation, and peace are possible,” he said.
The Pope's message emphasized how crucial Lebanon and its Christian population are to the Catholic Church, a place that St. John Paul II famously said was more than just a country but a message of freedom to the rest of the world.
The Grand Sunni Muslim Mufti of Lebanon, Abdul-Latif Derian, welcomed Leo at the interfaith event and recalled the good relations forged by his predecessor, Pope Francis. He cited the 2019 joint statement on human fraternity signed by Francis and the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb.
“Lebanon is the land of this message,” Derian said.
At the end of the event, the spiritual leaders planted an olive sapling as a symbol of peace.
The pope received a great welcome from Lebanon's spiritual leaders on his first day of visit, where billboards bearing his image dotted highways around the capital, Beirut, with thousands of ordinary Lebanese braving the steady rain in the morning to line his motorcade route.
Source: euronews.com
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