Pope Benedict XVI (C) and Gregorios III, Patriarch of the Church of Antioch (2nd L from centre), attend a ceremony at the St. Paul Basilica
REUTERS
Pope Benedict urged multi-faith Lebanon on Saturday to be a model of religious peace for the Middle East, as a civil war raged in neighbouring Syria, deepening sectarian divisions, reports Reuters.
"Lebanon is called, now more than ever, to be an example," he told political and religious leaders on the second day of a visit that coincided with violent protests across the Muslim world against a U.S.-made film insulting Islam.
Lebanon - torn apart by a 1975-1990 sectarian civil war - is a religious mosaic of over four million people whose Muslim majority includes Sunnis, Shi'ites and Alawites. Christians, over one-third of the population, are divided into more than a dozen churches, six of them linked to the Vatican.
The German-born pontiff, 85, delivered his morning speech in French at the presidential palace after meeting President Michel Suleiman, a Maronite Christian, Sunni Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, a Shi'ite.
At a rally later in the day, he told thousands of cheering young people not to let discrimination, unemployment and instability drive them abroad and reminded young Syrian Christians in the crowd that "the pope has not forgotten you."
Addressing young Muslims also there, he said "together with young Christians, you are the future of this fine country and of the Middle East in general. Seek to built it up together!"
Peace between warring factions and among the many religious groups in the Middle East has been a central theme of Benedict's visit, along with his call to Christians not to leave the region despite war and growing pressure from radical Islamists.
Amira Chabchoul, a Muslim onlooker outside the palace said: "We came to support the pope and also get support from him, because our experience has been that when we listen to him, we are touched and we are helped in our lives."
On Friday, protesters against the anti-Islam film dodged gunfire and tear gas to hurl stones at security forces in Lebanon's Tripoli where one demonstrator was killed. Protesters chanted "We don't want the pope" and "No more insults"
A Vatican spokesman said the pope was being kept informed of protests against the film, circulated on the Internet under several titles including "Innocence of Muslims".
Benedict began his visit on Friday with a call for an end to all arms supplies to Syria, where the tiny Christian minority fears reprisals if Islamists come to power at the end of the bloody insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad.
He also described the Arab Spring movement as a "cry for freedom" that was a positive development as long as it ensured tolerance for all religions.
Coptic Christians, about 10 percent of Egypt's population, have come under repeated attack by Islamists since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak. They worry the new government will strengthen Islamic law in the new constitution.
In Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, hardline Salafis have brought a new religious intolerance against fellow Muslims such as Sufis, whose shrines they are destroying as heretical.
"If we want peace, let us defend life," Benedict said. "This approach leads us to reject not only war and terrorism, but every assault on innocent human life."