Inter-Religious Meeting Held to Gather First Fruits of Historic Visit
By Robert Cheaib
BKERKE, Lebanon, SEPT. 26, 2012 (Zenit.org).-
An inter-religious meeting was held on Monday at the patriarchal
headquarters of the Maronite Church in Lebanon. The gathering gathered
various religious realities of the country to discuss the effect, fruits
and challenges stemming from Benedict XVI’s visit, which took place
earlier this month.
Attending the meeting organized by the Maronite Patriarch, Mar
Bechara Boutros El-Rai, were the heads of the major religious
communities, Muslim and Christian, present in Lebanon.
Participating on the Muslim side were: the Grand Mufti of the
Lebanese Republic, Sheikh Muhammad Rachid Qabbani as representative of
the Sunnis; the vice-president of the Supreme Shiite Islamic Council
Imam Abd el-Amir Qabalan, as representative of the Shiites; Sheikh Naim
Hassan, spiritual head of the Druses, and the president of the Alawita
Islamic Council, Sheikh Assad Assi.
Participating on the Catholic side were The Catholicos of the
Armenian Orthodox, His Beatitude Aram I Chechechyan; the Patriarch of
the Syro-Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Mar Ignatius Youseff III Younan;
the president of the Evangelical community in Lebanon and Syria, the
pastor Dr. Salim Sahyouny, as well as other bishops representing the
various Christian communities of Lebanon.
The participants focused their attention at the meeting on the
“historic visit” of Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon. Those present agreed
on the opportuneness of the visit which brought immediate positive
fruits to the Lebanese scene and highlighted the quality of the Lebanese
nation as a country “secure and open to all cultures and religions, and
as the best place to sign the Apostolic Exhortation “The Church in the
Middle East.”
In the final communique, the Christian and Muslim participants
expressed their approval of the contents of the Exhortation, given that
the Holy Father’s insistence on the necessary coexistence between
cultures and religions is “an expression of renewed confidence in
Lebanon’s mission, already confirmed by Blessed John Paul II” in his
apostolic visit to the country in 1997.
According to Lebanon’s various religious representatives, the
principal message that the Pope wished to give was to confirm Lebanon as
a land of dialogue and peaceful interaction among the different
cultures that live “the richness of diversity.”
The communique confirmed the willingness of the various religious
heads to commit themselves to “spread the fraternal message” of the Holy
Father and to “reflect further on its content in families, in schools
and in society” and to transmit the message to religious heads in the
other Arab countries.
In tune with the Pope’s appeal to young people not to yield to the
temptation to taste “the bitter honey of emigration,” the prelates
exhorted the Lebanese to stay in their land and not allow themselves to
be drawn by the “wave of emigration that impoverishes the East and
deprives it of its best children and dynamic forces and weakens the
Lebanese national fabric, putting at risk the Republic’s identity.”
Condemnation of the “Innocence of Islam”
The participants condemned unanimously the controversial film shown
on the Internet, which “offends Islam and its prophet and messenger
Muhammad,” and stated that “any offense to any religion is a sacrilege
against all religions.”
The communique also condemned the violent reactions that caused the
death of innocent victims and desecrated places of Christian worship far
from being responsible for the film.
A Successful Visit
Benedict XVI’s visit to the Lebanon was long prepared by the
country’s Christians. A few days before the visit, the Maronite bishops
hoped that the visit would be “a real and proper Arab Spring” marked by
peace and peaceful coexistence and respectful of otherness.
Numerically, participation in the visit was powerful, involving
several components of the Lebanese society, including representatives of
the Muslim communities. And the subsequent echoes on the visit were
highly positive both in the secular press as well as in the
interventions of several Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim religious heads.
Source: http://www.zenit.org/article-35603?l=english
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