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The message of Melkite Patriarch Gregory III Laham, the spiritual head of Lebanon’s second largest Catholic community, has mysteriously disappeared from a Catholic website, just hours after if first appeared, reports Vatican Insider.
Patriarch Gregory III Laham will be the first to address the pope during a welcome ceremony and according to his disappeared statement will ask the pope to recognise the Palestinian state, www.lbpapalvisit.com said Thursday.
The statement indicated Gregory will thank the Holy See and its leaders for their “firm and unwavering position on the (Palestinian) cause” and will also ask the Holy See to “recognise the Palestinian state in compliance with the resolutions and decisions of the international community and international law”.
The recognition, which the patriarch called a “courageous step of fairness, justice and truth”, would allow the Holy See to remain a “pioneer of world justice” and prompt European and other countries to follow.
Recognising the Palestinian state would also “be a guarantee for the solution of most of the very complex problems of the Arab and Muslim world and stop the emigration of Christians from the region”, the statement said.
However the publication of the message on the web has been a great embarrassment to Rome. “This is the Patriarch’s personal stance,” one Vatican source said, explaining that the message should not have been published before the trip.
Vatican Insider reports that it now looks highly unlikely that Gregory III Laham will give the speech.
The Middle East peace process is something close to Pope Benedict’s heart.
“My apostolic voyage in Lebanon, and by extension in the Middle East in its entirety, comes under the sign of peace,” Benedict told pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.
“I am not unaware of the often dramatic situation endured by the populations of this region which has been for too long torn by incessant conflict,” Benedict said.
Acknowledging that while finding solutions for the Middle East’s problems seems difficult, the Pope urged people not to resign themselves to violence or worsening tensions.
Benedict called for the creation of two states during a visit to the region in 2009.
Sources
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