Pope’s next Mideast visit will be to ‘suffering’ Lebanon
Meeting Al Sistani ‘good for my soul’, the pontiff says
Pope Francis yesterday announced that his next trip to the Middle East will be to crisis-stricken Lebanon, after concluding a historic four-day trip to Iraq.
Speaking to reporters on the plane returning from Iraq, the pope said that he badly wanted to visit Lebanon as soon as possible to stand by people of all religions who are suffering, Reuters reported.
“Lebanon is in crisis, and has a weakness resulting from diversity but [also] has the strength of its people,” Sky News Arabia quoted him as saying.
The Pope reportedly said that the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al Rai had asked him to stop by Lebanon on his way back but he had declined, according to CNN Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher.
“It seemed to me to be too little, crumbs, for a country that is suffering like Lebanon,” the Pope was quoted as saying with regards to Rai’s request.
Pilgrimage of faith and penitence
Pope Francis said his meeting with top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani had been “good for my soul”. The 84-year-old pontiff admitted the packed three-day visit had been more tiring than previous trips.
But he defended making the journey despite concerns about coronavirus and security, saying he took the decision “conscious of the risks”.
In his first trip since Covid-19 swept across the world last year, and the first ever by a pope to Iraq, Francis both brought encouragement to the country’s diminished Christian community. He spoke warmly of his meeting on Saturday with Al Sistani, 90, who is extremely reclusive and rarely grants meetings but made an exception to host Francis.
“I felt the need to make this pilgrimage of faith and penitence and to go and find a great, wise man, a man of God — you could tell that just by listening to him,” Francis said.
“That meeting was good for my soul.”
The face-to-face meeting marked a landmark moment in modern religious history and for Francis’s efforts to deepen interfaith dialogue.
On the plane, the pontiff noted criticism of his approach by some Catholic traditionalists, suggesting some saw him as “one step away from heresy”.
“These are risks. These decisions are always taken in prayer, in dialogue, by asking for advice. It’s a reflection, not a whim,” he said.