BEIRUT – After arriving in Lebanon Sunday, Pope Leo XIV offered an ode to peace in a speech to national authorities, telling a country flirting with war to make peacemaking their primary priority, and to persevere in healing current and historic wounds, and in fostering reconciliation.

Speaking to national civil authorities and members of the diplomatic corps after his arrival in Beirut Nov. 30, the pope noted that “Blessed are the peacemakers” is the theme of his trip, saying peace in Lebanon “is a desire and a vocation; it is a gift and a work in progress.”

“You, who have important institutional tasks within this nation, are destined for a special beatitude if you can say that you have put the goal of peace above all else,” he said.

Pope Leo arrived in Lebanon, a country his predecessor Pope Francis long desired to visit, after an initial stop in Turkey during his Nov. 27-Dec. 2 two-nation trip, the first international voyage of his papacy.

Before delivering his speech, Leo had individual private meetings with President Joseph Aoun and family, with the Speaker of Lebanon’s Parliament, Nabih Berri, and with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

In the Book of Honor at the presidential palace in Lebanon, ahead of his remarks, Pope Leo wrote, “On the first day of my visit to Lebanon, one of two countries that I am visıting on this first Apostolic voyage in my Pontificate, I happily wish many blessings upon all the people of Lebanon, praying that PEACE will reign.”

His call to peace in Lebanon carries significant weight given a tenuous ceasefire after two years of war in Gaza, and the parallel dispute between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah paramilitary group, tensions between whom risk boiling over and morphing into a full-blown war.

Earlier this week, Israel’s military killed a senior member of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in an air strike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, despite a yearlong ceasefire between the two.

On Friday the head of the Hezbollah military group, Naim Qassem, said in a televised address that it retained the right to Israel’s killing of it’s top military commander, raising concern about a potential new armed conflict between Lebanon and Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that “Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power, and we will not allow it to once again pose a threat to the State of Israel.” He urged Lebanese government “to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in response urged the international community to pressure Israel to halt attacks and to withdraw from Lebanon, calling recent Israeli interventions a violation of last year’s ceasefire agreement.

Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel escalated amid the Gaza war, with an exchange of fire erupting last year. A ceasefire came into effect last November. However, this week’s bombing shows the fighting is far from over.

In October Leo downplayed security concerns during an audience with King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan. In a clip that has now become viral, Rania can be heard during a photo session asking the pope if he thought it was safe to visit Lebanon, with Leo nonchalantly quipping back, “well, we’re going.”

Hezbollah in a letter to Pope Leo prior to his arrival thanked him for his visit, invoking his repeated defense of human rights as grounds to make a formal opposition to Israel’s military activities in Gaza and Lebanon.

They noted that Lebanon is a country with “a well-ordered sectarian diversity, within a framework of shared life and broad consensus, which are essential for the stability of its political system and national security.”

Lebanon has long been celebrated as a success story of peaceful interfaith coexistence in the Middle East, where religious and ethnic differences can often result in conflict and discrimination.

At the level of government, Lebanon operates with a confessional system that mandates the distribution of key political roles among the various religious groups to ensure adequate representation. Under this law, Lebanon’s president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.

In their letter to the pope, Hezbollah urged Leo to speak out against Israel, saying Lebanon’s diverse composition represents a “civilizational bridge” among different religious and cultural traditions, and those who hold secular views and lamented what they said was a failure by the international community to recognize and uphold the rights of others due to religion, ethnicity, language, or “vested interests.”

“The erosion of respect for human rights, whether by leaders, entities, parties, sects, states, or organizations, feeds tendencies of greed, domination, authoritarianism, and resorting to force instead of justice,” they said.

Hezbollah condemned the war in Gaza and pinned blame for the violence on what they said was Israeli greed and expansionist ambitions, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

“We in Hezbollah take this opportunity of your blessed visit to Lebanon to reaffirm our commitment to peaceful coexistence, consensual democracy, the preservation of internal security and stability,” they said, but indicated that they wouldn’t back down if Israel continues carrying out operations in Lebanon.

They pledged to defend Lebanon’s national sovereignty, to stand with the army and the people “against any aggression or occupation of our land and country.”

“We also assert our legitimate right to reject foreign interference that seeks to impose guardianship over our country and people, undermining our national decision-making and constitutional authorities,” they said.

Hezbollah urged Leo to speak out against Israel during his visit, saying, “we rely on your Holiness’s stances in rejecting the injustice and aggression inflicted on our homeland, Lebanon, by the Zionist invaders and their supporters.”

Pope Leo in his speech to national authorities reflected on what it means to be peacemakers in keeping with the theme of his visit, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

One quality is the ability to keep going even in the face of adversity, he said, saying the Lebanese are “a people who do not give up, but in the face of trials, always know how to rise again with courage.”

“Your resilience is an essential characteristic of authentic peacemakers, for the work of peace is indeed a continuous starting anew,” the pope said, saying peace is a task that requires tenacity and perseverance, especially in such a diverse culture.

While diverse, he said Lebanon is united by a common sense of hope, “which has always enabled you to start again.”

Leo lamented what he described as a sense of pessimism and powerlessness across the world, where decisions are taken by “a select few, often to the detriment of the common good, as if this were an inevitable destiny.”

“You have suffered greatly from the consequences of an economy that kills, from global instability that has devastating repercussions also in the Levant, and from the radicalization of identities and conflicts. But you have always wanted, and known how, to start again,” the pope said of Lebanon.

He also stressed the importance of reconciliation on the path to peace, saying both personal and collective wounds in society can at times take generations to heal.

“If we do not work, for example, to heal memories, to bring together those who have suffered wrongs and injustice, it is difficult to journey towards peace. We would remain stuck, each imprisoned by our own pain and our own way of thinking,” he said, and insisted on the need to facilitate moments of encounter.

Reconciliation, Pope Leo said, also requires a commitment work for a future in which “good prevails over the evils that have been suffered or inflicted in the past or the present.”

This is something he said requires that authorities and institutions prioritize the common good over private or particular interests.

Another characteristic of peacemakers is perseverance and sacrifice, he said, noting that many Christians and young families have fled the Middle East due to discrimination and violent persecution, as well as armed conflicts lacerating the region.

“It takes real courage and foresight to stay or return to one’s own country, and to consider even somewhat difficult situations worthy of love and dedication,” he said, noting that violence, poverty, and uncertainty are harsh realities.

While the decision to leave is understandable, “we must not forget that remaining in our homeland and working day by day to develop a civilization of love and peace remains something very valuable,” he said.

In this regard, the church is not just concerned with migrants, those who leave their homes, but it also laments that anyone is forced to leave their country, and “wants those who wish to return home to be able to do so safely.”

Faced with how to respond to the great number of young people who move abroad in search of peace and better circumstances, Leo said Christians, Muslims, and all religious and civil actors in Lebanese society “are called to play their part, and to commit themselves to raising awareness of this issue within the international community.”

The pope praised the role of women in Lebanese society, and their contribution to peacebuilding efforts, saying women “have a special capacity for peacemaking, because they know how to cherish and strengthen the profound bonds with life, people and places.”

Pope Leo closed praying that the desire for peace, “which comes from God, grow among you; for even today, peace can transform the way you look at others and the way you live together in this land, a land that God deeply loves and continues to bless.”

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