{"id":1072,"date":"2012-09-14T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/"},"modified":"2012-09-14T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T14:30:00","slug":"pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as ‘pilgrim of peace’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\u201cDear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilgrim of peace, as a friend of God and as a friend of men. Christ says, Salami o-tikum, 'My peace I give to you,'\u201d said the Pope at the official welcoming ceremony at the Beirut\u2019s Rafik Hariri Airport Sept. 14.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAnd looking beyond your country, I also come symbolically to all the countries of the Middle East as a pilgrim of peace, as a friend of God and as a friend of all the inhabitants of all the countries of the region, whatever their origins and beliefs. To them too Christ says: Sal\u00e0mi o-tikum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPope Benedict was greeted on the tarmac by Lebanon\u2019s President Michel Sleiman along with two local children in traditional Lebanese garb bearing flowers.<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope has travelled to the Middle East to sign his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation for the Middle entitled \u201cEcclesia in Medio Oriente\u201d which, he said, is \u201caddressed to everyone\u201d as \u201ca roadmap for the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope then applauded Lebanon as an example of a Middle East country that has re-built a multi-religious community \u201cdespite many sad and painful events which have affected your beautiful country along the years\u201d including a 15-year civil war that only concluded in 1990.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe successful way the Lebanese all live together surely demonstrates to the whole Middle East and to the rest of the world that, within a nation, there can exist cooperation between the various churches,\u201d said the Pope, \u201cand at the same time coexistence and respectful dialogue between Christians and their brethren of other religions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe country\u2019s population of 4 million contains an array of different religious groups with around 60 percent of people following some form of Islam. Approximately 39 percent is Christian with the majority of those members of Eastern Catholic churches that are in full communion with Rome. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\tPope Benedict recognized that this equilibrium \u201cwhich is presented everywhere as an example\u201d is, in fact, \u201cextremely delicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSometimes it seems about to snap like a bow which is overstretched or submitted to pressures which are too often partisan, even selfish, contrary and extraneous to Lebanese harmony and gentleness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIt is for this reason that moderation, wisdom and reason \u201cmust overcome one-sided passion in order to promote the greater good of all\u201d so that Lebanon will \u201cserve as a model to the inhabitants of the whole region and of the entire world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon.  <\/p>\n

\t“Dear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilg…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-africa"],"yoast_head":"\nPope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as 'pilgrim of peace'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon.   “Dear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilg...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as 'pilgrim of peace'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon.   “Dear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilg...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-14T14:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/\",\"name\":\"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as 'pilgrim of peace'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-14T14:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-14T14:30:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon.   “Dear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilg...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as ‘pilgrim of peace’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as 'pilgrim of peace'","description":"Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon.   “Dear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilg...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as 'pilgrim of peace'","og_description":"Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon.   “Dear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilg...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2012-09-14T14:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/","name":"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as 'pilgrim of peace'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-09-14T14:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-14T14:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 14, 2012 \/ 08:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon.   “Dear friends, I have come to Lebanon as a pilg...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-benedict-arrives-in-lebanon-as-pilgrim-of-peace\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope Benedict arrives in Lebanon as ‘pilgrim of peace’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}