The President had arrived with his wife and the
accompanying delegation at San Damaso Square in the papal palace in the
Vatican. They were greeted by the Dean of the Apostolic Palace and a
handful of Swiss Guards. The President’s first official visit to Europe did not
take place in Paris, as the tradition calls, but in the Vatican which
could be due to the fact that the mandate of the current French
presidency will end in May. Media reports said that talks will focus on issues of
concern for Lebanon and the Vatican, and about the Christians in Lebanon
and the region in light of the developments threatening their presence
at more than one level. According to media reports, the president will inform
Pope Francis of the revival of Lebanon’s state institutions, a
beneficial effect according to him of the end of the presidential
vacancy, and the return of Lebanon on the international and Arab
political scene. He will also keep him informed of the ongoing
discussions to adopt a new electoral law.
Hannah Brockhaus.-
With the 6th anniversary of the start of the Syrian war as backdrop
this week, Pope Francis met Thursday morning with the President of
Lebanon, Michel Aoun. Their discussion centered on the large number of Syrian refugees now
in Lebanon and the efforts to find a solution to the conflict. According to a March 16 statement by the Vatican, in the 20-minute
meeting, the Pope and President Aoun discussed Syria “with special
attention to international efforts to find a political solution to the
conflict.”
The Pope expressed appreciation for the many Syrian refugees Lebanon
has welcomed during the years of the Civil War. The two leaders also
exchanged views on the greater regional context and other ongoing
conflicts, particularly the situation for Christians in the Middle East. Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign
state bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south.
Before President Aoun, 82, was elected on Oct. 31, 2016, the Lebanese
parliament was under a 29-month deadlock to choose the next president. During the audience, Pope Francis and Aoun both expressed
satisfaction at the efforts of the various political parties to put an
end to the long presidential vacancy. The encounter also “focused on the good bilateral relations between
the Holy See and Lebanon, underlining the historic and institutional
role of the Church in the life of the country,” the Vatican statement
read.
The two emphasized, the statement continued, “the hope for an
increasingly fruitful future collaboration between the members of
diverse ethnic and religious communities in favor of the common good and
the development of the nation.” At the visit, President Aoun gifted the Pope a statue of the Infant
Child of Prague with emblems of the Holy See and of Lebanon and Francis
gave Aoun a bronze sculpture of olive branches as a sign of peace, as
well as three books: Evangelii Gaudium in French, and Amoris Laetitia
and Laudato Si in Arabic. Since the start of the civil war on March 15, 2011, 400,000 people
have died in the conflict between government forces and rebel groups,
and over 11 million have been displaced from their homes, according to
the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Five million registered refugees have fled the country, at least 2.2
million of these residing in Lebanon and 1 million in Jordan. This has
placed considerable strain on the countries, which previously had
populations of just 4 million and 6 million, respectively.
