Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Benedict XVI believes peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East until the religious freedom of Christians is respected there.

This was the central message of the Holy Father’s trip to Lebanon at the weekend, a message echoed by a visiting Lebanese priest who addressed Scottish Catholics in Paisley yesterday.

The Pope’s trip to Lebanon and Fr Samer Nassif’s visit to Scotland both took place at a time of increasing religious tension and violence in the Middle East, exacerbated recently by a US-made film that denigrated Islam. The violence that has accompanied the protests against that film has been in stark contrast with the message of peace preached by the Pope on his three-day apostolic visit to Lebanon.

Papal message

Peace requires a society that is based on ‘mutual respect, a desire to know the other, and continuous dialogue,’ the Holy Father said at a multi-faith gathering of Lebanon’s political, religious and cultural leaders at the presidential palace in Baabda last Saturday. He went on to explain such dialogue can only arise from fundamental human values that are held in common by different religions.

Thus, the Pope said, ‘religious freedom is the basic right on which many rights depend.’

“The effectiveness of our commitment to peace depends on our understanding of human life,” he said. “If we want peace, let us defend life! This approach leads us to reject not only war and terrorism, but every assault on innocent human life, on men and women as creatures willed by God.”

In a reference to the many Middle Eastern countries that restrict the practice of Christianity, the Pope said that those nations must learn that freedom must go beyond ‘what nowadays passes for tolerance,’ which he said ‘does not eliminate cases of discrimination’ but sometimes ‘even reinforces them.’

“Freedom to profess and practice one’s religion without danger to life and liberty must be possible to everyone,” he said. “Authentic faith does not lead to death.”

Scottish event

Lebanese priest Fr Samer Nassif, who spoke at Paisley’s St Mirin’s Cathedral about the persecution Christians suffer in the Middle East, brought the importance of the Pope’s message home to Scottish Catholics. At the event, sponsored by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Fr Nassif said that even though the Middle East was ‘Christianity’s cradle’ it was now hostile territory to those of the faith.

“Did you know that there were up to six times more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than during the first four centuries of Christianity?” he asked those gathered at the talk. “Every five minutes, a Christian is martyred somewhere in the world because of Christ. From Morocco to Pakistan, with the notable exception of Lebanon and Armenia, the Christians of the Middle East undergo discrimination. They have been persecuted for more than one millennium and are deprived of their political, economic and religious freedoms.”

Fr Nassif said persecution and emigration had reduced Christians to a small minority through much of the Middle East, but the Pope’s trip to his homeland of Lebanon could help reverse that.

“Why did he choose my country? Because in Lebanon, Christianity is still a flourishing religion: it is the only free Christianity in the Middle East,” he said. “After 40 years of Calvary, it is still standing triumphant. Lebanon is the only Arab country which has a Christian and a Catholic president. Without Christians, Lebanon would not exist. Blessed Pope John Paul II said ‘Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message.’”

The message of Lebanon, Fr Nassif averred, was that it was only Christians that could bring peace to the lands of Christ’s birth.

“Our Pope confirmed that, without Christians, there is no possibility of coexistence, peace and forgiveness between different non-Christian religious communities,” he said. “The Pope asks the suffering Orient Church to become Light of Christ to our neighbours, the Jews of Israel and to the vast Muslim world that surrounds us by hundreds, and hundreds of millions.”

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