MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Pope Leo XIV is in Lebanon, holding prayers, holding meetings with Christian and Muslim religious leaders. His focus is encouraging peace and tolerance in a region scarred by conflict. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports as she travels with the first American pope.
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: In a tented hall in Beirut's Martyrs' Square, with helicopters flying above and Lebanon's iconic Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque visible to one side, leaders from Lebanon's many religions - Christian, Muslim, Druze and others - sit together with Pope Leo and take turns to speak. Aram I, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
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ARAM I: Your Holiness, you are visiting a country where unity in diversity and diversity in unity is an existential reality.
SHERLOCK: With its history of sectarian civil war and a political system based on the distribution of political power between religious faiths, Lebanese have long been part of a complex society that includes 18 different recognized religions. Twelve of those are Christian denominations, and Lebanon has the largest proportion of Christians in the Middle East. Religious figures spoke about this and about Israel's recent war with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah that further damaged an already weakened state.
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ALI AL-KHATIB: (Non-English language spoken).
SHERLOCK: "We have been compelled to defend ourselves by resisting the occupier who has invaded our land," said Sheikh Ali al-Khatib, the vice president of the Higher Shia Islamic Council. "We are certainly not lovers of weapons nor of the sacrifice of our sons." Shia leader Khatib appealed to Pope Leo to free Lebanon from Israeli airstrikes that continue despite a ceasefire.
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UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOL CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
SHERLOCK: Between speeches, this school choir sang for Pope Leo - children from Lebanon's mostly Shia town of Sur in the south of the country, close to the border with Israel, that has been hard hit by airstrikes.
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UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOL CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
SHERLOCK: In the audience, there's hope that just maybe Pope Leo can do something to bring real peace to Lebanon, says Lebanese journalist Zizi Estephan.
ZIZI ESTEPHAN: He's a pope after all. He should have a role to play, especially for peace, for pushing things on and working for peace.
SHERLOCK: Pope Leo did not address the conflict directly, instead reflecting on Lebanon as biblical land.
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POPE LEO XIV: A land exalted by the prophets of the Old Testament who beheld in its towering cedars emblems of the righteous soul that flourishes beneath heaven's vigilant gaze.
SHERLOCK: The pope has received the warmest reception in Lebanon. He was welcomed with traditional dabke folk dances around his popemobile and crowds cheering through the rain, celebrating this moment of peace after so much recent suffering. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Beirut. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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