CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A leader of the Lebanese youth groups that wrote the meditations for today\u2019s Via Crucis at the Coliseum said they focus on unity and peace between Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n\t\u201cBenedict told us, \u2018I want you, youth, Christian and Muslims, to testify to a new Orient saying no to war and yes to peace,\u2019 so that is our aim, our prayer and our hope,\u201d explained Father Toufic Bou Hadir, the general coordinator for Lebanon\u2019s patriarchal youth department.<\/p>\n
\tArabic Christians, he pointed out, are experiencing \u201cvery difficult days,\u201d but they need to put their \u201ceyes on the cross, because ours is the native land of Christianity and of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe meditations take in all the suffering, the needs and intentions of the youth in the Middle East to unite it to the Passion of Christ,\u201d Fr. Bou Hadir said in a March 28 interview with CNA.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis is so we will be real witnesses to the resurrection, especially with Jesus\u2019 resurrection, the 15th station, which gives us hope,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\tThis evening at 9:15, Pope Francis will lead the Way of the Cross at the Coliseum, a place where many Christians were martyred in ancient Rome.<\/p>\n
\tFr. Bou Hadir said the authors also took into account all of the war victims in Syria, both Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n
\tBenedict XVI, who travelled to Lebanon in September, chose youth from that country to write the reflections for each station of the 14 traditional stations, which will be read out by people of different nationalities and a disabled person.<\/p>\n
\tForty-five young people aged 17 to 30 years old from six different groups wrote the reflections.<\/p>\n
\tThose groups are associated with a university, a high school, an apostolic movement, a religious group, an ecumenical youth group and an interreligious dialogue youth group.<\/p>\n
\tBut a special needs group and the charitable organization Mission of Life also helped write the reflections.<\/p>\n
\tThe authors arrived in Rome on March 28 at the Aleppino Maronite College, after visiting Assisi and the shrine of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.<\/p>\n
\tJoseph Semaan is a member of the youth committee from Lebanon\u2019s Maronite Church who helped write the reflections.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe live with the war next door to us in Syria and Israel, but also with Christian and political division within our own country,\u201d Semaan said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe wrote them with the spirit of suffering of Christians in the Middle East,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n
\tSemaan explained that he met Christians from the Syrian city of Aleppo who moved to Lebanon to escape the fighting.<\/p>\n
\tDenise El Khoury was involved in writing the reflection of the first station of the way of the cross.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe main message of the reflections is peace and communion,\u201d said El Khoury.<\/p>\n
\t\u201c\u2018Give us peace\u2019 is the main message Christians in Syria would like to give to the world,\u201d El Khoury stated.<\/p>\n
\tHer contact with Syrian Christians comes from knowing a group of believers who live in the biggest Christian community in Damascus.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey live in Baptouma in Damascus and they are insecure and they are waiting for peace,\u201d said El Khoury.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey get up every day hoping that the war will end on that day, and I know that it\u2019s very difficult for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe first station compares Pilate to some governors because in some countries they place their own interests above others, especially the poor people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\tEl Khoury was also involved in deciding how to distribute the task of writing the reflections to the numerous groups in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe know what they (Syrians) are enduring because we\u2019ve been there, when we had 30 years of war,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
\tEl Khoury believes the number of Christians in the Middle East will continue to reduce in the near future.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAll the youths are thinking of leaving their home country to go to places like Australia, the States and Canada where they can build a future,\u201d she reported.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBut we tried, especially with the Pope\u2019s visit, to encourage them to have strength and courage to stay in their country working for peace and justice,\u201d El Khoury said.<\/p>\n
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Rome, Italy, Mar 29, 2013 \/ 09:58 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A leader of the Lebanese youth groups that wrote the meditations for today’s Via Crucis at the Coliseum said they focus on unity and peace between Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n
\t“Benedict t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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