In Lebanon, pope mixes bitter and sweet

by John L Allen Jr on Sep. 14, 2012

In advance, Benedict XVI's three-day trip to Lebanon shaped up as a balancing act, both reaching out and pushing back -- that is, extending an olive branch to the Muslim majority of both Lebanon and the entire Middle East, while at the same time defending its beleaguered Christian minority and rejecting the radical currents in Islam which exploded anew this week with violence in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere.

Day one of the trip didn't disappoint, with Benedict offering a mixture of the bitter and the sweet. I'm in Beirut covering the trip, arriving early this afternoon aboard the papal plane.

During a 13-minute session with reporters on the plane, Benedict declared the Arab Spring "a positive thing," the first time he's issued such a judgment. It came despite the fact that some Christian leaders in the Middle East see the 'Arab Spring' as a potential winter, heralding a transition from police states that grudgingly tolerated Christians to Islamic theocracies which actively persecute them.

The Arab Spring, Benedict said, reflects a desire "for greater democracy, for greater liberty, greater cooperation and a renewed Arab identity." The implication, seemingly, was that Christians shouldn't be afraid of it.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/lebanon-pope-mixes-bitter-and-sweet