Pope Francis on Thursday urged the leaders of Lebanon, which is mired in a financial depression and facing its worst social crisis in 30 years, to put aside partisan interests and work for peace and stability.
Francis made the appeal at the end of a day-long summit with Lebanese Christian leaders in the Vatican to discuss how religions can help the country get back on its feet.
He also repeated his wish to visit Lebanon, which is still reeling from a huge chemical explosion at the Beirut port last year that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.
“I would reiterate how essential it is that those in power choose finally and decisively to work for true peace and not for their own interests,” Pope Francis said.
“Let there be an end to the few profiting from the sufferings of many! No more letting half-truths continue to frustrate people’s aspirations,” he said during a closing prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, much of it conducted in Arabic.
Lebanon is battling a deep financial crisis, which the World Bank has called one of the worst depressions of modern history. It has pushed more than half the population into poverty and the currency has lost more than 90 per cent of its value in about two years.
The pope said Lebanese were “disillusioned and weary...in need of certainty, hope and peace”
Prime minister-designate Saad Hariri, a Muslim, has been at loggerheads for months with President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, over cabinet positions.
In his closing address, Francis also said Lebanon and the Middle East should not be used “for outside interests and profits".
Iranian influence has been on the rise in Lebanon over the past years through Hezbollah, the armed Shiite group whose political power has grown.
Papal visits to the Middle East — in pictures
Pope Francis has said he hopes to visit Lebanon once a government is formed.
President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, followed the opening prayer meeting through a closed-circuit TV, his office said. He said in a tweet that the whole world was participating with the pope in prayer for Lebanon.
“Our prayers together is that, as Christians and Muslims, we strengthen the values of truth and justice, balance and mutual respect that reinforces our national unity so that we restore to our nation its unique message of coexistence in the region and the world,” he tweeted.
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Indoor Cricket World Cup
Venue Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE squad Saqib Nazir (captain), Aaqib Malik, Fahad Al Hashmi, Isuru Umesh, Nadir Hussain, Sachin Talwar, Nashwan Nasir, Prashath Kumara, Ramveer Rai, Sameer Nayyak, Umar Shah, Vikrant Shetty
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
