The Lebanese Catholic and Maronite priests were asked to attend an online morning meeting with the Vatican’s ambassador to Lebanon, Archbishop Paolo Borgia. Once online, Borgia told them Leo was also present and would like to speak with them.
The 13 holy men, from southern villages and towns, including Rmeich, Ain Ebel, Debel, and Marjayoun, were pleasantly surprised.
“(The pope) gave us peace and his blessings,” said Father Najib al-Amil, the parish priest of Rmeich, who attended the online meeting. “His words were reassuring, particularly as we live in constant worry over here,” Al-Amil told The Associated Press.
Christian villages along the border with Israel have been mostly spared intense Israeli bombardment that has caused wide destruction in other parts of predominantly Shiite southern Lebanon. However, the situation remains tense in southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire that went into effect on April 17, as Israel continued its attacks despite the truce, pushing the resistance group Hezbollah to retaliate.
Al-Amil said the pope spoke in French with the priests during the video call that lasted about a minute and urged them to stay in their hometowns.
“Pray with me so that peace prevails. God willing, peace is near,” al-Amil quoted the pope as saying.
The Vatican spokesman didn’t immediately respond when asked for details of the call. The Vatican did say that Leo had a meeting on the Wednesday agenda with the Holy See’s ambassador to Lebanon, though no details are ever released of such audiences.
When Pope Francis used to call the parish priest in Gaza, as he was known to do every evening during Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian enclave, the Vatican always declined to provide details, describing the initiative as a personal pastoral act by the pope.
Israeli actions in southern Lebanon worry Christian faithful
Photos of an Israeli soldier smoking while putting a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary surfaced on Wednesday, in the latest in a series of actions perceived as showing disregard for Lebanon's Christian community.
The photo, Israeli KAN News reported, had been uploaded by soldiers to social media and taken in the village of Debel sometime over the last day.
A few days before Wednesday's call, the Israeli military demolished a Catholic convent in the border village of Yaroun, according to officials.
Two local officials from Yaroun and a nun who spent time at the convent in recent years told the AP that the photos posted in the Israel statement were of another building next to the convent that housed a clinic and archbishopric, and that the Israeli military had bulldozed the convent.
Lebanon's state news agency also reported that the convent was demolished.
The convent demolition also came days after images of an Israeli soldier wielding an axe against a statue of Jesus on the cross in the village of Debel sparked widespread condemnation.
In early April, an Israeli strike on an apartment east of Beirut killed a local official from the Christian Lebanese Forces Party. The strike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominantly Christian town in the hills east of Beirut, killing a man and two women.
Christians make up around a third of Lebanon’s 5 million people, giving the small nation on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East.
In November, Leo flew from Turkey to Lebanon, marking his first trip abroad since being elected in May last year. The pope has recently revealed that he carries a photo of a young Lebanese Muslim boy who had held up a sign welcoming Leo to Lebanon. The boy was killed during Israel's recent war on Lebanon.
Maronite Catholics are the largest Christian group in Lebanon, and the Lebanese president is always a Maronite, in accordance with the country’s power-sharing agreement.
Since 2 March, Israel has killed at least 2,702 people and wounded over 8,000, demolished tens of villages in the south, destroyed tens of thousands of housing units, and displaced more than 1.6 million people, nearly a fifth of the country’s population.
A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced on 17 April by US President Donald Trump, initially set for 10 days and later extended by an additional three weeks.
Despite the truce, Israel has continued near-daily strikes against Lebanon, and Hezbollah responded by targeting Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon.
* This story has been edited by Ahram Online.
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