Pope Francis received this Friday at the Vatican the interim prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati; occasion that he took advantage of to encourage peace in the Middle East.
“Expressing satisfaction with the ceasefire reached in the south of the country and waiting for its further consolidation, the hope was reiterated that the peaceful coexistence of different religions will continue to characterize the identity of Lebanon and serve as help and support to the peace in the Middle East,” says a note from the Press Office of the Vatican.
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The war between Israel and Hamas, which began in October 2023, spread to Lebanon a few months ago, where the Israeli offensive has left thousands dead and forced the closure, among others, of a Franciscan convent of the Custody of the Holy Land.
“In addition, the socioeconomic situation of the Country of the Cedars was addressed, also marked by the prolonged absence of the election of the President of the Republic,” the text adds.
The position of president of Lebanon has been vacant since November 2022, after Congress failed to elect one of the candidates.
At the meeting, the Vatican indicates, “the importance of the good diplomatic relations that exist between the Holy See and Lebanon and the relevance of the contribution of the Catholic Church and the Christian component to the good of the country was also highlighted.”
At the conclusion of the meeting with Pope Francis, Najib Mikati met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican; and Bishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations.
It is the third time that the Holy Father receives Mikati in the Vatican. The last time was in March 2023, when both spoke about the unprecedented socioeconomic crisis that the country was facing and the urgency of calling new elections.
At today’s meeting, inform Vatican NewsPope Francis gave the interim prime minister the bronze sculpture titled Dialogue between generationsalong with volumes of papal documents and the Message for the World Day of Peace 2024 in Arabic, which he signed for the occasion.
Mikati, for his part, gave the Holy Father a work that represents the Nativity, created by a priest from the Antonine University.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.