"Dialogue, mutual understanding and the search for a reasonable compromise are the only way to give back to Lebanon its institutions and to the population the security they need for a dignified everyday life, full of hope in the future". This is the belief of the Pope, who, after saying yesterday’s "Regina Caeli", made an appeal for Lebanon. "I have followed with deep concern, in the last few days began Benedict XVI , the situation in Lebanon, where the deadlock of political initiative has been followed first by verbal abuse and then by armed conflict, with lots of people dead and wounded". "Even if the situation has relaxed in the last few hours", the Pontiff exhorted the Lebanese "to put aside any approach based on aggressive opposition, that would lead their beloved country towards the irreparable". "May Lebanon, with the intercession of Our Lady of Lebanon the Pope’s wish , respond bravely to its call for being, for the Middle East and for the whole world, a sign of the real possibility of a peaceful and effective cohabitation of men". Finally, mentioning the post-Synod exhortation, "A new hope for Lebanon", the Pontiff pointed out that "the different communities that compose it are the same time an asset, a uniqueness and a difficulty. But all the population has the joint responsibility for making Lebanon live”.
