Santiago Taboada<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pope Leo XIV received Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in an audience scheduled for 9:30am this morning at the Apostolic Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting comes at a critical moment for Lebanon. Its agreement with Israel for Israeli forces to leave southern Lebanon remains unresolved, as Israel insists it will not withdraw from the area until the terrorist group Hezbollah is disarmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the violence continues. Last Saturday, several Israeli aircraft attacked the villages of Ansar and Deir el Zahrani, killing eleven people, including three children and two women. Hezbollah has vowed revenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The presence of this armed group in the south has driven Christians from the region. Lebanon\u2019s foreign minister even asked the Holy See to mediate in order to protect the country\u2019s Christian community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a message Pope Leo reaffirmed by traveling to the country on his first apostolic trip. President Aoun, for his part, attended his inaugural Mass as pope and met with him in an audience in June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, they have met again. They share not only the same faith, but also a commitment to pluralism and a desire for inter religious dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the country of the Cedars, it is mandatory that the president be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the president of the Assembly of Representatives a Shiite Muslim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In light of this coexistence, John Paul II went so far as to declare that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GFX<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lebanon, more than a country: it is a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for the East and the West.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now Aoun faces the task of removing the Israeli forces from Lebanese territory and disarming Hezbollah, a Shiite terrorist group traditionally backed by Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Santiago Taboada Pope Leo XIV received Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in an audience scheduled for 9:30am this morning at the Apostolic Palace. The meeting comes at a critical moment for Lebanon. Its agreement with Israel for Israeli forces to leave southern Lebanon remains unresolved, as Israel insists it will not withdraw from the area until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":758,"featured_media":93297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/G3RP4ufQ5Pw","video_descarga":"https:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bvisitajosephaouineng.mp4","international_url":"https:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bvisitajosephaouinint.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93301,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93296\/revisions\/93301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}