Monday, November 12, 2007

LEBANON: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS CRUCIAL FOR SURVIVAL

VATICAN CITY, NOV 11, 2007 (VIS) - At midday today, after praying the Angelus, the Pope expressed his concern at the political situation in Lebanon.

  "The Lebanese national assembly will shortly be called to elect a new head of State." he said. "As is clear from the many initiatives undertaken over these days, it is a crucial moment upon which the very survival of Lebanon and of its institutions depends. I share the concerns expressed recently by His Beatitude Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, Maronite patriarch, and his hope that all the Lebanese may recognize themselves in the new president. Together let us call upon Our Lady of Lebanon that she may inspire in all ... parties the necessary detachment from personal interests and a true passion for the common good."

  Benedict XVI then went on to address members of the Argentinean community in Rome and of the Salesian family with reference to the beatification of Ceferino Namuncura, being held today at Chimpay, Argentina, under the presidency of Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B.

  "We give thanks to God for the extraordinary witness of this 19-year-old student who, animated by his devotion to the Eucharist and by his love of Christ, wished to become a Salesian and a priest in order to show the way to heaven to his brethren of the Mapuche people. With his life he illuminates our own path to sanctity, inviting us to love our fellow man with the same love as that with which God loves us. Let us appeal to Mary Help of Christians that the example of the new Blessed may produce abundant fruits of Christian life, especially among the young."
ANG/LEBANON:BEATIFICATION NAMUNCURA/...        VIS 20071112 (290)


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