Pope to Visit Lebanon, Meet Christians, Muslims in September
05 Jul 2012 – By Francis X. Rocca
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI
will present a papal document addressing the church’s
concerns in the Middle East, meet with representatives of
local Christian and Muslim communities, and address
political and cultural leaders on a three-day visit to
Lebanon Sept. 14-16.
Pope Benedict’s primary task on the trip will be to
present a document, called an apostolic exhortation, based
on the deliberations of a special Synod of Bishops held at
the Vatican in 2010.
That two-week meeting, which was attended by
185 bishops, most of them from the 22 Eastern Catholic
Churches in communion with the Holy See, focused on
the precarious circumstances of 5.7 million Catholics in
16 Middle Eastern countries.
A document released by participants at the end of
the synod called for “religious freedom and freedom of
conscience” in Muslim lands, a theme Pope Benedict is
likely to address on his visit.
Planning for the pope’s trip to Lebanon occurs
against the backdrop of unrest in neighboring Syria, where
soldiers have been battling forces seeking an end to the
rule of President Bashar Assad, leaving thousands of
civilians dead since March 2011.
At the Vatican in June, Pope Benedict called on
the international community to end the Syrian conflict and
told Catholics from the Middle East that he prayed Mary
would “watch over the upcoming trip that — if it pleases
God — I will make to Lebanon” in September.
Here is the schedule for the trip as released by the
Vatican July 3. Times listed are local, with Eastern
Daylight Time in parentheses:
Friday, Sept. 14 (Rome, Beirut, Harissa)
Monday, August 20, 2012
— 9:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m.), Departure from Rome’s
Ciampino airport for Beirut, Lebanon.
— 1:45 p.m. (6:45 a.m.), Arrival ceremony at
Beirut’s Rafiq Hariri International Airport. Speech by
pope.
— 6 p.m. (11 a.m.), Visit to St. Paul’s Basilica in
Harissa and signing of the post-synodal apostolic
exhortation. Speech by pope.
Saturday, Sept. 15 (Baabda, Bzommar, Bkerke)
— 10 a.m. (3 a.m.), Courtesy visit with President
Michel Suleiman at the presidential palace in Baabda.
Also private meetings with the president of the parliament
and the prime minister.
— 10:50 a.m. (3:50 a.m.), Meeting with leaders of
Muslim communities at the presidential palace in Baabda.
— 11:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m.), Meeting with Cabinet
ministers, government officials, diplomats, religious and
cultural leaders at the presidential palace in Baabda.
Speech by pope.
— 1:30 p.m. (6:30 a.m.), Lunch with the patriarchs
and bishops of Lebanon, members of the Synod of
Bishops and the papal entourage at the Armenian Catholic
patriarch’s residence in Bzommar.
— 6 p.m. (11 a.m.), Meeting with young people in
the square outside of the Maronite patriarch’s residence in
Bkerke. Speech by pope.
Sunday, Sept. 16 (Beirut, Harissa, Charfet)
Tags: Lebanon Pope Benedict XVI