How did the trip go?
Fr. Lombardi is obviously happy,
having been worried earlier!
Sept. 16, 2012
Vatican Press Office director Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, assessed the papal visit in an interview with Vatican Radio's Tracey McClure before leaving Lebanon.
As the Holy Father prepares to leave Lebanon Sunday, could you give us your impressions of the trip?
My impression is obviously very positive, especially if I compare it with the attitude with which I came. I was worried: Will the Pope succeed in giving his message? Will people listen to him? Now we have positive answers to all these questions.
What we have seen here in Beirut, in Lebanon, was a wonderful encounter between the Pope and the Lebanese, different parts of this complex society, Catholics of different rites, but also Muslims of different communities.
The presence of the President of the Republic at all public moments of this trip, was a sign of the participation of the entire land in this historical visit.
I think the Pope was right to come, and with courage, and to say “Yes, I am a pilgrim of peace and my presence will signify that we don’t fear what happens around us, we announce the love of God: peace for all men and women of the world”.
In his Homily on Sunday’s Gospel in which Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, Pope Benedict said that episode marked a turning point in Jesus’s life. In a certain sense, the Middle East is also marking a turning point today. – What was Pope Benedict inviting Christians here to do?
The Pope has given encouragement, he has confirmed principles we already knew, he has not provided new words or new solutions. But this is not his duty.
He is Peter who encourages us and reinforces the foundations of the Faith for Christians. He has come to confirm all Catholics, all Christians, in their Faith and in their hope – particularly in their hope. That is what he has done.
He has not given specific solutions to specific problems. The document he leaves here, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, is an important basis for reflection and discernment for the Christian communities to seek concrete measures and solutions to their pastoral problems. It offers a way for them to engage themselves in the life of society, and so on.
There are many concrete things to do, but these are more the responsibility of the local communities and of the local faithful. The Pope gives directions, and encouragement for all. Work now begins to translate the document into action and into concrete solutions for the many problems.
Sometimes the Church in the Middle East is seen as being somewhat distant from the lay faithful and young people. At the youth gathering Saturday in Bkerke, the young people asked for more help from church leaders to aid them in staying in these lands. How is the Church in Rome cooperating with churches here in that sense?
I think we cannot take responsibility away from those who have responsibility. That is really the local communities, the Catholic communities of the different rites, they have to find a way.
The Pope said yesterday evening to the Patriarchs and the Bishops: please work well on catechesis, that is, on educating young people in the Faith, and adults too, because that’s what they need. The Faith has to be something that engages reason, the heart, the mind, and the entire person. But you have to help people by educating them and catechesis is important.
In this regard, the Pope returned to the theme of the Year of Faith as an occasion to involve the entire community and the Church in this direction. And internationally, we have to seek concrete initiatives of solidarity.
I know many local Churches in Italy too that are engaged in collaborative efforts with local communities in the Holy Land, in Lebanon, and in other parts of the world. It is not a question of centralising the organization of assistance, but it’s a question of concrete solidarity between different local communities in different parts of the world – and it can be very effective because it means more to people than big principles or declarations.
Pope Benedict made an appeal for Syria – one of many times he has called for an end to the violence there. How heavily does this tragic conflict weigh on the Holy Father, and indeed, all of the recent violence we’ve seen across the region?
The conflicts and deaths touch the Holy Father, and everyone else, very profoundly. Sometimes we don’t see a solution, and no one until now has found a solution to the Syrian problem. We try to do what each of us can: sometimes through prayer, sometimes giving advice, and sometimes through appeals.
The Pope has also said we must stop the arms trade and the importation of weapons. He continuously invites people to dialogue because Christians, not only in Syria but throughout the Middle East, are in a position to mediate, in a certain sense, because they are not a power that people fear, they are a minority.
Christians have no influence over weapons and power. In this sense they can invite the different sides in the conflict to come together and dialogue, to understand each other and to reconciliation. This is one of the aspects of the vocation of the Christian communities in the Middle East and this also regards the Christians in Syria.
But we don’t have concrete solutions for all these problems. I also think the Christians who came here from Syria during these days, felt the love of the Pope. His presence has encouraged them in this difficult time.
Speaking at his Angelus on Sunday the Pope called on Arab countries and on the international community to intervene to somehow stop the violence…
This is obvious because we know that conflicts in one country often reflect conflicts elsewhere, among major powers and nations with their specific interests. In this sense, the will of the entire international community to go in the direction of peace will also surely help extinguish tensions in different countries.
The unpredictable Jose Manuel Vidal blows red-hot and unequivocal today in his assessment of he trip - and of the Holy Father:
The miracle of the courageous Pope
by José Manuel Vidal
Translated from
Sept, 16, 2012
Extraordinary. A miracle. A dream come true. The Pope's visit to Lebanon, just as we thought before it began, was a complete success.
He went into the lion's den and came out unharmed and something like a thaumaturge. He came to the edge of hell and was not even singed. The white cassock imprints character and makes miracles.
The frail but valiant Pope - wise, gentle, reserved and sincere - has reaped a new triumph that is pastoral, mediatic, spiritual and even political.
Even at the Vatican, the Pope has shown himself vigorous and has
[for now, at least!] silenced those voices which, for their own interests, had been gossiping that he no longer governs, if he ever did; that his reign had begun to give way to the rule of subordinates and the chaos of the various frogs and crows who hatched the mess that was Vatileaks.
[That isn't quite how Politi and his ilk put it - they claim he is both unable and uninterested in governing, and the subordinates who are supposed to govern for him are, alas, incompetent.]
To the rest of the world, Benedict XVI has once again presented himself as a global referee, being the great moral authority in a globalized world that has no examples to follow. And in a world without leaders of global weight, the figure of the Pope looms like a giant.
[How true! Just as in the death throes of European Communism, John Paul II loomed large alongside political giant Ronald Reagan and his British counterpart, Margaret Thatcher.]
In Lebanon - a miracle of equilibrium between races, languages and religions - the prestige of the Pope has been consolidated. His presence there may have helped damp down the local flames of Muslim rage blamed on a blasphemous video produced by a California man
[reportedly an Egyptian Copt, not Israeli as earlier reported, so one more score for the Muslims to settle with Christians. And also, as 'small' as the protest was in the Lebanese Tripoli, it did claim one death.].
In the past three days, Benedict XVI has seemed like a prophet of peace, sent by God, a messenger from heaven to a Middle East incessantly convulsed by wars and assorted violence.
By his very presence, he has animated the Christian minorities, many of them virtually under siege in the Middle East, and filled them with pride. And he called on them to be messengers of peace and servants of reconciliation, of fraternal dialog and of practical ecumenism. To join efforts with no time to spare. To respect Muslims and other religions. To create a united front among all believers
[and non-believers of good will!]
The valiant Pope, pride of all Christians, has seduced and gained the hearts of the Muslims in Lebanon. Who has left his imprint in Lebanon - with the cedar he planted as a symbol. And with words directed at neighboring Syria like messenger doves, seeking to help that troubled nation find peace once again.
Andrea Tornielli is equally admiring but less on helium...
The Pope in Lebanon:
Messenger of peace
and fine diplomat
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of
Sept. 16, 2012
Beyond his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation - a message of hope for a view of religion that should never be violent - Benedict XVI showed on his trip to Lebanon a capacity to interpret politically the interconnections within the entire Middle Eastern and North African region.
Before his trip, his co-workers insisted on many occasions that the Pope is not a political leader, and a reading of the six major addresses he delivered in Lebanon may give the impression that, because he was arriving at the Middle East powderkeg at a time of maximum tensions, Benedict XVI had chosen to address himself above all to the Christian communities, limiting himself to generic appeals for peaceful coexistence among religions.
But if one looks more closely at his words, especially those he said off the cuff during the in-flight session with reporters, and at Angelus today, one perceives the outline of a precise judgment.
In the interview, the Pope referred to the so-called Arab spring, saying that "the desire for more democracy and more freedom" was positive, with the caveat that "from the history of revolutions, we know that while the demand for freedom that is so important and positive, there is always the danger of forgetting a fundamental aspect of freedom, which is tolerance of the other".
[In another of his prolix commentaries during the Lebanon visit, John Allen makes much of the fact that one bishop expressed himself openly suspicious of the 'Arab spring' in front of Benedict, interpreting it as 'correcting the Pope gently'. Did he really expect the Pope to diss the 'Arab spring' directly? That would have been considered by the Muslims to be almost as offensive as they ound the Paleologue quotation in the Regensburg lecture - at a time when the Muslim reaction to the 'blasphemous film' recalls the demos against teh Pope himself because of Regensburg! Besides, his caveat to his 'positive' comment said everything without sounding censorious or negatively critical.]
In the same Q&A, when he was asked about the situation in Syria, Benedict XVI replied that one has to begin by stopping the arms trade, that other nations should stop sending arms to Syria, saying that exporting weapons was 'a grave sin'.
At the Angelus, in praying "specially for the residents of Syria and neighboring countries", he said: "Sadly, the din of weapons continues to make itself heard, along with the cry of the widow and the orphan. Violence and hatred invade people’s lives, and the first victims are women and children. Why so much horror? Why so many dead? I appeal to the international community! I appeal to the Arab countries that, as brothers, they might propose workable solutions respecting the dignity, the rights and the religion of every human person!"
By placing the emphasis on violence, on the horror of war, on the dead, rather than on the need for democracy and freedom that emerged with the 'Arab spring', the Pope expressed the Holy See's realistic approach to the Syrian crisis.
In Tunisia and Egypt, the uprisings led to the rise to power of historic Islamist (extremist) parties that seem to be stabilizing factors for now.
But the situations differ from country to country, and even if it is evident to everyone, including the Vatican, that the downfall of the Assad regime is just a matter of time, Papa Ratzinger was careful not to legitimize or bless the uprising against Assad by resorting to the rhetoric of 'the springtime of the Arab peoples', showing that he has doubts about what could happen with a change of government, or even about the external forces supporting and arming the anti-Assad rebels.
His appeal to the international community to propose 'practical solutions' that can pout an end to the spiral of violence has been the most 'political' message so far from a religious leader whose very presence in a Middle East in flames, spoke before - and perhaps, even more, than his words.
His approach is far from a way of distancing himself from the sufferings and real problems of the Middle Eastern people,s but, quite the contrary, it proves that in analyzing crises, he is not content with simply applying simple slogans to complex situations.
I had not thought about it before, but the Pope's very presence in Lebanon was indeed a message in itself - not just for the Christians of the Middle Eats, and not that he was courageous for entering the gates of hell on earth (he is pragmatic enough to know that the various security agencies involved in guaranteeing his safety while in Lebanon would never given him the green light unless they were absolutely sure that the risks were low and controllable) - but simply because it focused the world, especially the leaders of the region, on his words for a change.
One always assumes that the rest of the world necessarily learns about it when he makes his tireless appeals for peace and an end to hatred and violence in his Angelus messages and his Urbi et Orbi messages. But the news agencies report these appeals in a few short sentences, and although they make these stories available to their subscribers and anyone who searches online, I doubt that the news-briefing officers of national leaders would even bother to include those items in their news summaries, much less highlight them. One must assume that most of the time, such papal appeals do not get to the attention of those persons and institutions they are addressed to.
But his presence in a country - this time, a country that represents the one region on earth that is an ever-boiling cauldron of the worst evils that lead to mass violence and deaths - is of a different order and magnitude altogether. He was genuine Page 1 news, and it focused attention on him and every word that he said, in a way that could not be missed by those concerned.
Besides being the supreme moral authority on earth, Benedict XVI has the advantage of not being suspect politically, because he has no vested interests other than the good of everyone. He is not supporting Assad like Putin, he is not desperately seeking re-election like Obama, he is not playing footsie with Iran like China, he is not desperate to keep trading privileges in the region like France, he has no political ambitions for regional hegemony like Turkey. He is truly both sans peur et sans reproche, the ideal knight to do battle.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/09/2012 13:09]