AhlulBayt News Agency: Pope Leo XIV met Lebanon's Christian and Muslim religious leaders on Monday, calling for peace in the region and praising the country's interfaith coexistence.
The pontiff was welcomed by spiritual leaders on his first day in the country, where thousands of Lebanese lined his motorcade route in Beirut despite steady rain.
The interfaith meeting in Martyr's Square brought together Lebanon's Christian patriarchs and Sunni, Shiite and Druze spiritual leaders.
After listening to hymns and readings from the Bible and Quran, Pope 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 spiritual leaders planted an olive sapling at the end of the event.
“We, as Lebanese, need this visit after all the wars, crises and despair that we have lived through,” said Reverend Youssef Nasr, secretary-general of Catholic Schools in Lebanon. “The pope’s visit gives a new push to the Lebanese to rise and cling to their country.”
The Grand Sunni Muslim Mufti of Lebanon, Abdul-Latif Derian, welcomed Pope Leo XIV at the interfaith event and recalled relations forged by his predecessor Pope Francis. He cited the 2019 joint statement on human fraternity signed by Pope Francis and the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayeb.
"Lebanon is the land of this message," Derian said.
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