Pope visits a ‘divided’ Lebanon

LEBANON: When Pope Benedict XVI comes to Lebanon this week he will find a different country than the one his predecessor, John Paul II, visited 15 years ago.

But one thing remains unchanged, Lebanon is still divided along sectarian lines.

John Paul saw a country still recovering from a devastating civil war, its sectarian wounds still raw.

He brought a message of hope. Benedict comes to a Lebanon whose political classes are still unable to agree on a common vision for the tiny eastern Mediterranean country of 4.6 million people.

His message is expected to be one of reconciliation, both among Christians and between Christians and Muslims. The pontiff will encounter new divisions in Lebanon, whose once-dominant Christians have long since been reduced to a minority, their influence now more that of playing a swing role in the power politics of the Muslim majority.

Where Lebanon’s international concerns in 1997 were more with Israel, whose troops occupied a large chunk of the country’s south, they are now focused squarely on Syria, which held sway in its smaller neighbour for decades.

At issue is the Syrian civil war, which has claimed more than 27,000 lives and that some fear threatens to shatter a status quo between the larger and smaller neighbours dating back half a century.

AFP