“Everyone must join forces so that this land can return to its former glory. And there is only one way to do this: let us disarm our hearts, let us cast off the armour of our ethnic and political divisions, let us open our religious confessions to mutual encounter, so that we may dream of a Lebanon where peace and justice reign, where all may recognise each other as brothers and sisters and where, finally, the words of the prophet Isaiah may be fulfilled: ‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion shall graze together.’ These were the concluding words of Pope Leo at the end of his visit to Lebanon, a country where ‘minarets and bell towers stand side by side’.
The Sisters of Charity of the Eastern Province – from the youngest to the oldest – participated with joy, in thanksgiving, and in responsibility in the various moments that marked Pope Leo’s first visit outside the Vatican State, in Lebanon after his stop in Turkey.
