'Lebanese gathered around the pope as a messenger of peace,' Aoun says

BEIRUT — President Joseph Aoun released a statement Wednesday in which he described Pope Leo XIV's visit to Lebanon as being interconfessional and focused on peace, at a time when Lebanon, still under the unabated daily aggression from Israel, is bracing itself for an escalation in those same attacks.

In Lebanon from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, Leo XIV brought together Lebanese "of all backgrounds and faiths, not only around the Supreme Pontiff, but also around what he represents as a messenger of peace," Aoun reportedly said during a meeting with a Federation of Scouts of Lebanon delegation. "A peace the country has long aspired to, after the people have been exhausted by war."

The delegation was led by the federation's president, Wassim Zein, who noted that the Federation is the largest union of youth volunteers in the country, bringing together more than 150,000 scouts and guides across 41 associations accredited by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Youth "must be educated to love their homeland and not their parties or their communities," Aoun claimed. "Our only party should be Lebanon" because the country is "exhausted by one-upmanship that has torn it apart, with no side emerging victorious."

While the scouts played a major role in organizing the papal mass, Aoun also praised the "unifying" role of the scout movement, which brings together young people "from all regions and faiths" and, in his view, embodies "the values of citizenship, service, and commitment to a Lebanon above particular interests."