BEIRUT (RNS) — At a meeting with a head of the one of the Christian faith’s earliest communities, Pope Leo XIV addressed young Christians on Monday (Dec. 1), urging them to stay in their country despite the recurring challenges and obstacles.
“Dear young people, perhaps you regret inheriting a world torn apart by wars and disfigured by social injustice,” he told the crowd gathered at Bkerki, the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch, northeast of Beirut. “Yet there is hope within you, a gift that we adults seem to have lost. You have time! You have more time to dream, to plan and to do good.”
Among the mostly local youth present were some from Syria and Iraq, as well as many from the Lebanese diaspora around the world. An estimated 15 million Lebanese live outside the country, according to government data, while the population in the country is around 5.8 million.
Arriving aboard a popemobile, Leo greeted a large crowd waving the white and yellow flags of the Holy See alongside Lebanese flags. He was greeted by Bechara Boutros Rahi, the Maronite Patriarch, before hearing the testimonies of two volunteers, identified as Anthony and Maria, who spontaneously rushed to the streets to help p …