Pope, Christian leaders press case for peace in Lebanon and Gaza

ROME – Amid multiple signs of an escalating conflict in the Middle East, Pope Francis and the Catholic leadership of the region are continuing their push for peace, focusing not only on the conflict in Gaza but also the mounting crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.

Francis on Monday met a group of family members of victims of a massive August 2020 port explosion in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, which caused at least 218 deaths along with more than 7,000 injuries and an estimated $15 billion in property damage. The pontiff used the occasion to renew his support for de-escalation.

“Lebanon is, and must remain, a project of peace,” he said, referring in part to the fact that in percentage terms, the country contains the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.

“With you, I implore from heaven that peace which people struggle to build on earth,” the pope said. “I beg it for the Middle East, and for Lebanon.”

Citing St. John Paul II, who once called a special Synod of Bishops for Lebanon during the country’s bitter civil war, Francis referred to Lebanon as a “message.”

“Its vocation is to be a land where diverse communities live together, prioritizing the common good over particular advantages, where different religions and confessions meet in fraternity,” he said.

The pope’s words came on a day when both Israel and Hezbollah appeared to take a step back from the brink, returning to more limited confrontations along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Nevertheless, Hezbollah claims it’s fired at least 320 rockets at Israeli targets in response to the targeted killing of its military commander in Beirut last month, while on Sunday Israeli jets strafed a series of Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon.

“With you, I feel the pain of still seeing, every day, the death of so many innocents as a result of the war in your region, in Palestine, in Israel, and Lebanon pays the price,” the pope said Monday. “Every war leaves the world worse off than it found it. War is always a failure, of politics and of humanity, a shameful surrender, a defeat facing the forces of evil.”

In Gaza, meanwhile, Palestinian authorities claimed Monday that an Israeli airstrike on a beach in Gaza City killed seven people, bringing the overall death toll, according to the disputed Palestinian count, to 40,435 since the conflict broke out in October 2023. At the same time, talks in Cairo designed to produce a ceasefire in Gaza broke down Monday as Israeli and Hamas negotiators were unable to agree on key points.

Against that backdrop, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, an ecumenical body that includes Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, released a statement Monday calling for an urgent end to the violence.

“We once again implore the leaders of the warring parties to heed our calls and those of the international community to reach a rapid agreement for a ceasefire resulting in the end of the war, the release of all captives, the return of the displaced, the treatment of the sick and wounded, the relief of those who hunger and thirst, and the rebuilding of all public and private civilian structures that have been destroyed,” the church leaders said.

In addition to the Catholic Church, the grouping of patriarchs and church leaders includes representatives of the Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian Orthodox Churches, as well as the Anglicans and Lutherans, and the Greek Melkite, Maronite, Syrian and Armenian eastern Catholic Churches.

“Ceasefire negotiations have dragged on interminably, with the leaders of the warring parties seemingly more concerned with political considerations than bringing an end to the pursuit of death and destruction,” they church leaders said in their August 26 statement. “These repeated delays, coupled with other provocative acts, have only served to heighten tensions to the point where we stand at the precipice of a full-blown regional war.”

The leaders also expressed special concern for their own Christian communities, including “those taking refuge in Gaza at St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church and Holy Family Catholic Church, as well as the courageous staff of al-Ahli Anglican Hospital and the patients under their care.”

Of the roughly 1,200 Christians living in Gaza prior to October 2023, out of a total population of 2.4 million, anecdotal reports suggest that as many as 500 have fled the area, most leaving through the Rafah crossing into Egypt in southern Gaza.