Aoun expresses gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for calls for peace for Lebanon
President of the Republic General Joseph Aoun welcomed Pope Leo XIV’s selection of the Shrine of Saint Charbel at the Monastery of Saint Maroun in Annaya among the world’s major pilgrimage sites, alongside the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, the Shrine of the Virgin in Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Holy House of Loreto in Italy, to participate in the Rosary prayer from the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Vatican Gardens, which will conclude this evening the month of May dedicated by the Church each year to the Virgin Mary.
President Aoun thanked Pope Leo for choosing the Shrine of Saint Charbel in Annaya among these global sites, saying: The Lebanese, from all sects, whether residents or in the diaspora, still keep in their hearts and consciences your first apostolic visit to Lebanon last winter, and they continue to raise the prayer to Saint Charbel that you wrote and recited before his shrine, just as they remember the calls for peace that you addressed for Lebanon, especially in the painful circumstances it is currently experiencing.
He added: His Holiness’ decision to preside over the Rosary prayer for the victims of wars, the suffering, the displaced, and the workers in the medical and nursing sectors and volunteers in relief who provide daily humanitarian assistance, and for the establishment of lasting peace in the world and in Lebanon, is proof of the Holy See’s deep concern for Lebanon and for countries suffering from wars around the world. Lebanon, which has so far lost about 3,000 of its sons due to imposed war and aggression, including nurses, paramedics, volunteers, and innocent people from various sects and regions, and which continues to witness the displacement of more than one and a half million of its people, joins His Holiness in prayer so that their pure blood and suffering may mark the resurrection and salvation of Lebanon. He also joins him in prayer to the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Lebanon, chosen by God among the women of the world, from near the shrine of Saint Charbel itself, so that the Lord may preserve Lebanon as a space of peace, freedom, and coexistence between cultures and religions.
