Pope francis appeals for Lebanon

Pope Francis held his weekly general audience in public for the first time in six months on Wednesday, smiling and chatting as he re-emerged from the constraints of the coronavius lockdown.

“After so many months, we resume our encounters face to face and not screen to screen, face to face, and this is beautiful,” he said to applause at the start of the audience.

Francis kissed a Lebanese flag handed to him by Lebanese priest Georges Breidi and bowed his head to say a silent prayer for the country, still reeling from last month’s deadly port blast and rising sectarian tensions.

At the end of the audience he invited the priest to the front to hold up the flag as the pope made an appeal for peace and dialogue in Lebanon.

“Lebanon cannot be abandoned to itself,” Francis said, asking politicians, religious leaders to commit themselves with “sincerity and transparency” to reconstruct the country and for nations to help “without getting involved in regional tensions”.