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| “Mama, will Baba Roumieh visit us in Shatila camp?” |
John Paul II’s 1997 visit was seen as a challenge to Syria’s control of the country. Benedict XVI this year hopes to deliver a different and far broader message.
The late Pope John Paul II’s visit to Lebanon in May 1997 took place under circumstances very different to those surrounding the forthcoming trip of his successor Benedict XVI, who is scheduled to arrive on September 14.
The current pope will not be encumbered by the same global political and religious concerns as his Polish predecessor, and the Lebanese Maronite patriarch, Beshara Rai, also bears little likeness to his forerunner, Nasrallah Sfeir.
The focus of this papal visit will be on the survival of Christian communities in the Arab world amid what is seen as an intensifying regional struggle between advocates of Christian-Muslim partnership and rising religious extremism. This is where the challenge lies in Lebanon, too. It is at the heart of a dispute which, since Rai’s assumption of the primacy, has increasingly polarized the country’s Christians. |
| Rai with Lebanon\s Christian leaders |
Much has changed since 1997 for the churches of the Arab world, whom the pontiff will address an Apostolic Exhortation to during his stay. The Arab uprisings pose fresh challenges to the region’s Christian communities, already afflicted by successive waves of emigration. Things have also changed for the Maronite church, which was a mainstay of the independence movement during the time of the last papal visit. This was underlined by Sfeir in the sermon he made to Christian crowds in Beirut then, in which he recalled the cardinal who symbolized Polish resistance to Communism, Stefan Wyszynski.
Fifteen years on from that historic papal visit, the Israeli army has departed from Lebanon, followed by the Syrian army. Yet Lebanon’s Christians, for whom the late pope came at a time when their political leaders were in prison or exile, have remained highly unsettled since those days, despite their enhanced importance to other Christian communities in the region.
In 1997, the papal visit was seen as a direct challenge to Syrian hegemony. The opposition’s presence at the Beirut mass was an event in its own right, while the pontiff’s message to Lebanon’s youth addressed their problems and their aspiration for freedom, sovereignty, and independence.
Today, the Vatican has different priorities. The pope’s concerns go beyond the problem of extricating Lebanon from the era of hegemony, to the existential problems Christians face in the conflict-torn region.
Rai’s agenda also differs from that of Sfair, who in May 2001 refused to accompany John Paul II to Damascus. The patriarch’s flock is split between those who await the demise of the Syrian regime and the disarmament of Hezbollah, and those who are allied with them.
The visit therefore comes at a fateful juncture, in terms of both how events in Syria will unfold over the coming four months, and how rival Lebanese Christians deal with their differences.
The Vatican sees Lebanon as a symbolically important country for a number of reasons.
First, Lebanon is home to a wide array of eastern and other churches. The Pope’s meetings will encompass the Maronite, Melkite, and Armenian Catholic churches.
This makes it a good place from which to issue the Apostolic Exhortation, which is addressed to all Arab churches and follows the synod they held last October – unlike the previous exhortation which was specific to Lebanon.
Secondly, Lebanon is a country which Christians were partners in creating and for whose independence thousands gave their lives. It is not a Muslim country, but an Arab country in which power is shared between all sects. Issuing the call from there reinforces the message to Christians region-wide to remain committed to their homelands, whatever the difficulties.
Lebanon’s religious and political freedom, reflected in its media, further amplifies that message. But irrespective of the logistical and symbolic considerations behind Lebanon having been chosen, the centerpiece of the visit remains the Apostolic Exhortation urging the Christians of the Arab world to remain in their homelands and hold on to their core values amid the changes sweeping the Arab world.
The Vatican has stressed the need for Christians to champion freedom, justice, equality, tolerance and respect for women’s rights in their countries. But it has done so by upholding universal and biblical values, rather than taking political sides. Throughout the past year and a half of Arab upheavals, it has avoided expressing support or opposition to any regime, but sufficed with reiterating its principles while condemning violence and bloodshed. From Tunisia and Egypt to Syria, its approach to the “Arab Spring” has been couched in purely humanitarian terms.
Implicit in the papal message is the idea that the region’s Christians, while fearful for their survival, have a mission, not of martyrdom, but of reconciliation and other Christian values. Seeing as they share the language, culture, and concerns of their Muslim compatriots, they can become a link and a shared space between the Western and Islamic worlds, rather than playing the alliances game.
Events in Syria have made the Vatican particularly worried about the Christians there. It is voicing its concern and encouraging them to remain in their country. And it is sending them this important message from Lebanon because of their close geographical and social connections with its Christians, and the political split in Beirut over developments in Syria.
The pontiff’s purpose is not so much to direct the church institutions towards addressing these issues, as to implore all concerned – in his capacity as a messenger of peace – to work toward building fairer and more democratic societies.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
Uprooted Palestinian 
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