Pope Francis and Donald Trump meet at Vatican

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by catholicherald.co.uk - The US president said it was a 'very great honour' to meet the Pope

Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump spent 30 minutes speaking privately in the library of the Apostolic Palace May 24, and as the president left, he told the Pope, “I won’t forget what you said.” The atmosphere at the beginning was initially formal, however, the mood lightened when Pope Francis met the first lady, Melania Trump, and asked if she fed her husband “potica”, a traditional cake in Slovenia, her homeland. There were smiles all around. Pope Francis gave Trump a split medallion held together by an olive tree, which his interpreter told Trump is “a symbol of peace.” Speaking in Spanish, the Pope told Trump, “I am giving you this because I hope you may be this olive tree to make peace.” The president responded, “We can use peace.” Following the meeting President Trump tweeted that he was “more determined than ever to pursue peace in our world”.

Pope Francis also gave the president a copy of his message for World Peace Day 2017 and told him, “I signed it personally for you.” In addition, he gave Trump copies of his documents on “The Joy of the Gospel,” on the family and “Laudato Si'” on the environment. Knowing that Pope Francis frequently has quoted Martin Luther King Jr, Trump presented Pope Francis will a large gift box containing five of the slain civil rights leader’s books, including a signed copy of The Strength to Love. “I think you will enjoy them,” Trump told the Pope. “I hope you do.”

After meeting the Pope, Trump went downstairs to meet Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister. He was accompanied by Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, and HR McMaster, his national security adviser. The meeting lasted 50 minutes. The Vatican described the president’s meetings with both the Pope and with top Vatican diplomats as consisting of “cordial discussions,” with both sides appreciating “the good existing bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America, as well as the joint commitment in favor of life, and freedom of worship and conscience.” “It is hoped that there may be serene collaboration between the state and the Catholic Church in the United States, engaged in service to the people in the fields of healthcare, education and assistance to immigrants,” the Vatican said. The discussions also included “an exchange of views” on international affairs and on “the promotion of peace in the world through political negotiation and interreligious dialogue, with particular reference to the situation in the Middle East and the protection of Christian communities.” Because of the Pope’s weekly general audience, Pope Francis and Trump met at 8.30am, an unusually early hour for a formal papal meeting. The early hour meant Pope Francis still could greet the thousands of pilgrims and visitors waiting for him in St Peter’s Square.

Many of those pilgrims, though, had a more difficult than normal time getting into the square. Security measures were tight with hundreds of state police and military police patrolling the area and conducting more attentive searches of pilgrims’ bags. Reaching the St. Damasus Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace, where the US flag flew for the morning, Trump was welcomed by Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the papal household, and a formation of 15 Swiss Guards. Accompanied by the archbishop up an elevator and down a frescoed hallway, the president passed more Swiss Guards in the Clementine Hall. Although President Trump and Pope Francis are known to have serious differences on issues such as immigration, economic policy and climate change, the Pope told reporters 11 days before the meeting that he would look first for common ground with the US leader. “There are always doors that are not closed,” the pope told reporters May 13. “We have to find doors that are at least a little open in order to go in and speak about things we have in common and go forward.” After leaving the Vatican, President Trump was driven across Rome for meetings with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. Meanwhile, the First Lady went to the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu children’s hospital — right next door to the Pontifical North American College, which is where US seminarians in Rome live. President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, went to the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic lay movement, for a meeting on combating human trafficking.

Here's the plan for Melania and Ivanka's day in Rome

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By Elise Harris - CNS

Rome, Italy, May 23, 2017 / 03:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- When U.S. President Donald Trump stops in Rome for a meeting with Pope Francis Wednesday, both his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka will have their own schedules, which include stops at a Vatican hospital and a round-table on human trafficking. Ivanka serves in her father's administration in an unpaid position as an assistant to the president. Pope Francis and Donald Trump will meet at the Vatican May 24 at 8:30 a.m., before the Pope’s General Audience. Melania and Ivanka will both be present for the public portion of the visit, but will each follow their own itinerary after.Once the meeting is finished, the First Lady will a visit the Vatican-owned pediatric hospital Bambino Gesu. During her tour of the facility, Melania is expected to greet patients and visit one of their playrooms as well as the chapel.    While Melania visits Bambino Gesu, Ivanka, a high-profile adviser to her father, will make her way to the Roman neighborhood of Trastevere to meet with the Community of Sant’Egidio to discuss efforts to oppose human trafficking.

The Sant’Egidio Community is often praised by Pope Francis for their work, in particular for the projects they lead aimed at helping the poor and refugees. During her meeting with Sant’Egidio, Ivanka is expected to meet with several women who are victims of trafficking, and discuss various ways in which the Church and the U.S. government can collaborate on the problem. Before leaving with her father on his first international tour, Ivanka hosted an anti-human trafficking round-table at the White House May 17 that hosted a swath of bipartisan lawmakers and representatives of numerous organizations that deal with human trafficking.   According to reports, during the discussion Ivanka spoke about the Trump administration’s efforts to combat trafficking not only in the U.S., but throughout the world, telling attendees that “combatting human trafficking and modern slavery is both a moral and strategic interest domestically and abroad.”

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Tyre's ancient hippodrome hosts gruelling military Olympiad

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by Aoibheann O’Sullivan

The unit of six UNIFIL French peacekeepers, carrying a stretcher with a colleague strapped to it, turned the corner and saw the menacing lattice of ropes about 50 cm off the ground glinting in the afternoon light. They hardly broke their pace as they yelled instructions to each other, and then leopard-crawled at haste under the web of ropes, dragging their stretcher-bound teammate with them. The crowd watching roared in appreciation. Close on their heels were teams from the Lebanese Armed Forces, UNIFIL Malaysia, Ghana and Republic of Korea contingents. The dust kicked up by the competition caught the evening sun as it no doubt used to during Roman times when chariots entertained the crowds.The archaeological Roman hippodrome in the Lebanese city of Tyre is one of the largest and best preserved hippodrome in the world. The site once seated around 20,000 spectators and hosted dramatic chariot races. Last Sunday, this ancient site was a fitting backdrop for the annual Military Olympiad between UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

 As teams of Lebanese military personnel and UNIFIL peacekeepers sweated it out in friendly, but gruelling competitions, Brigadier General Liot de Nortbecourt, UNIFIL Chief of Staff, contextualised the event, “The reason we're here today is to support two associations that take care of wounded soldiers, their families and children of martyrs. The first one is a French association based in Paris ‘Terre Fraternité’ and the second association ‘Association of the Martyr Lt Col Sobhi Al Akoury’ is named after the first LAF martyr in Nahr al-Bared battles and it protects and supports the families and children of these Lebanese Army martyrs.” Each association received a donation of US$ 23,000, but not before military personnel had to compete in boot-camp style events. These included “Chronos”, where teams of 10 personnel race to pull a 6,100-kg truck for 150 metres, and the appropriately named “Hades”, where teams of seven each had to do a rugged cross fit relay circuit. 

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Hotel average rate same as 20 years ago

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by Rania Ghanem  The 2016 average room rate in Beirut hotels was the same level as that in 1996, which was $166. Significant changes however had been registered over the years with rates reaching their peak of $281 in 2009. Both figures were stated in the recent report: ‘2017 Middle East hotel survey – Chaos consolidation and opportunity’ by HVS, a global hotel consulting firm. Pierre Achkar, Chairman of the Syndicate of Hotel Owners, said: “Rates should have at least doubled during this 20-year period,” especially since GDP has more than tripled from $15 billion to $50 billion. The average occupancy rate at Beirut hotels during the last twenty years (1996-2016) was 54 percent. Occupancy rate was also 54 percent last year, registering a 20 percent decrease from 1996. Occupancy rates reached a peak of 71 percent in 2004. Beirut had the lowest rate among 14 cities in the Middle East that have complete data for the covered period. The survey covers three, four, and five star hotels in 42 cities regionally. The compound annual growth for rates per available room (RevPAR) grew one percent during this period. It reached $88 last year increasing from $75 in 1996. RevPAR reached its peak ($197) in 2009. Achkar said: “Occupancy and room rates remained stable in the country, although the number of hotel beds didn’t increase much.” In other cities, like Dubai, RevPAR increased from $120 in 1996 to $205 last year, in parallel with a large increase in the number of hotel beds. Reported by

Trump Likens Hizbullah to IS, Qaida, Lauds Lebanon and Lebanese Army

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by Naharnet

 U.S. President Donald Trump compared Hizbullah in a landmark speech on Sunday to extremist organizations such as Islamic State and al-Qaida, as he lauded the Lebanese army for fighting IS and Lebanon for hosting a huge number of Syrian refugees. “We now face a humanitarian and security disaster in this region that is spreading across the planet. It is a tragedy of epic proportions. No description of the suffering and depravity can begin to capture its full measure,” said Trump in a speech focused on terrorism during the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh.

“The true toll of ISIS, al-Qaida, Hizbullah, Hamas, and so many others, must be counted not only in the number of dead. It must also be counted in generations of vanished dreams,” Trump added. Applauding the Gulf Cooperation Council for “blocking funders from using their countries as a financial base for terror, and designating Hizbullah as a terrorist organization last year,” the U.S. leader praised Saudi Arabia for joining Washington this week in “placing sanctions on one of the most senior leaders of Hizbullah,” Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, who is the head of the party's powerful executive council. “Of course, there is still much work to do,” Trump added. He lamented that “from Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region.” “For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” Trump charged.

He also applauded Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey for “their role in hosting refugees.” Trump also acknowledged the Lebanese army's role in fighting IS militants on the eastern border, saying “many are already making significant contributions to regional security” and that “the Lebanese Army is hunting ISIS operatives who try to infiltrate their territory.” A defiant Safieddine had stressed earlier on Sunday that the U.S. administration will not be able to “harm the resistance,” three days after he was blacklisted by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in an unprecedented "joint terrorist designation." “America's malice and siege against our region, countries, homelands and societies prove that it has become a lot weaker than it was in the previous years and decades, and that can be evidenced by the skepticism on Trump's continued leadership of the United States of America and the daily attacks on him from most U.S. media outlets and the world's media empires,” Safieddine said. “When the U.S. administration was in a good situation, it did not manage to harm the resistance, and therefore this mentally impeded and mad U.S. administration led by Trump will not be able to harm the resistance and they will not get anything,” the Hizbullah official added. “What they will get is further screaming in the media and everything they have done will come to an end,” Safieddine emphasized.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Sunday accused regional rival Shiite Iran of exporting extremist Islamic movements to the world and vowed to eliminate the Islamic State group. "The Iranian regime has been the spearhead of global terrorism since the (Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini revolution" in 1979, King Salman said in a speech to leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump. "We did not know terrorism and extremism until the Khomeini revolution reared its head," he said. Saudi Arabia was also determined to "eliminate the Islamic State group," the king said of the Sunni Muslim jihadist organization. The Saudi leader's speech came minutes before a highly anticipated address by Trump, who arrived in the Sunni kingdom on Saturday on his first foreign tour since taking office. The United States and Saudi Arabia on Saturday announced an arms deal worth almost $110 billion, described as the largest in U.S. history. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the deal was aimed at countering "malign Iranian influence."

Prime Minister Saad Hariri held brief exchanges Sunday in Riyadh with the kingdom's deputy crown prince and the U.S. and Saudi foreign ministers. The talks were held on the sidelines of a landmark Arab-Islamic summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. The premier's office said Hariri held brief exchanges with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir before the end of the summit. MTV had reported that Hariri held a brief chat with Saudi Arabia's powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after he was welcomed to the summit by King Salman bin Abdul Aziz. A close aide to Hariri had said that the prime minister's stances at summit “will not breach Lebanese consensus.” “The participation was discussed in Cabinet and was coordinated between President Michel Aoun, PM Hariri and Hizbullah's ministers in the government, and PM Hariri will not have stances that breach Lebanese consensus and there will be no dramatic and unusual decisions,” Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury told al-Mustaqbal newspaper in remarks published Sunday. “The issue of Hizbullah's arms will not be tackled by the summit and I don't think there will be anything new regarding the Lebanese situation,” Khoury added. Describing the Syrian refugee crisis as a “dramatic repercussion,” the minister said “Lebanon is concerned with asking the Arab, Islamic and international communities to close ranks to resolve the Syrian crisis peacefully to pave the way for the refugees' return and for the start of the project of rebuilding Syria.” “Most participating countries have already labeled Hizbullah as a terrorist organization and they are not awaiting Lebanon's stance in this regard and there will be nothing new on this,” Khoury went on to say. He also noted that Lebanon would not voice reservations over the summit's resolutions or over the issue of combating terrorism “unless there will be resolutions pertaining to a domestic Lebanese issue.” “I however doubt that that will happen,” Khoury added. “President Aoun took part in the Jordan summit and the official rhetoric expressed the consensus of the Lebanese, and PM Hariri is heading to the summit with the same rhetoric on which the Lebanese have agreed,” the minister went on to say. Lebanon

‘The kitchen has no religion’: the Lebanese activist offering hope through food

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by Wendell Steavenson- The guardian 

Kamal Mouzawak grew up in Jeita, a small town in the mountains north of Beirut, during the Lebanese civil war. One of his earliest memories was when his mother was out of the kitchen and he decided to make a cake. He thought to himself: ‘What is a cake?’ He stirred a slurry of flour, sugar and eggs in an empty sardine tin because he could not find a cake pan and cooked it on top of the stove. “It was a burnt omelette!” he laughed, remembering the experiment over lunch this spring in Beirut. “But what still amazes me is the metamorphosis of ingredients.” Over the last decade, Mouzawak has created a recipe for transforming people’s lives through food. He now presides over a network of markets, restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts and community outreach programmes in Lebanon.

Some projects are non-profit, others for-profit, and through them Mouzawak has developed a model of social entrepreneurship that is as much about empowering people as selling products. His brings together farmers, chefs, NGOs, designers and artisans, connecting people to politicians and business to ethics. One morning, in his main restaurant in Beirut, I watched him conduct three business meetings simultaneously, moving from table to table, discussing photographs for a new cookbook, plans for a new restaurant and giving a quick briefing to a group of European journalists on a tour. His enterprise is called Souk el Tayeb. Souk is Arabic for market and tayeb is a useful word with several meanings, including good, kind, delicious. It signifies acceptance, acknowledgement and thank you all rolled into one. Souk el Tayeb began as a farmers’ market in 2004.

I lived in Beirut when the market first opened on a scratched patch of car park, one of the bald spots in a city destroyed by 15 years of civil war. It sold orange blossom honey from the citrus orchards in the south, thick dark pomegranate molasses made by a grandmother in a mountain village, jars of pickled radishes, cucumbers, peppers; feta cheese preserved in oil with thyme and chillies. The sambousek stuffed with ground lamb and spinach always sold out within the first hour. Fresh fruit from across Lebanon at the Souk el Tayeb farmers’ market in Beirut. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fresh fruit from across Lebanon at the Souk el Tayeb farmers’ market in Beirut. Photograph: Natalie Naccache for the Observer The market is still one of the great wonders of the Middle East. I walked along the rows of stalls one recent sunny spring Saturday morning, marvelling, wide-eyed and hungry.

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