The day after our arrival in Beirut, we went to visit a group of Maronite Catholic Christian youths in a neighborhood of South Beirut called Hadath. A very beautiful and moving meeting with these young people who did a lot to help Muslim and Christian families in this neighborhood which had known deadly Israeli bombardments in the autumn last year. Finally, for several months now, peace and calm seemed to have returned to their neighborhood. However, two days after this visit, while we were gathered one evening with a group of Greek Orthodox youths, we suddenly learned with surprise that a new missile strike had just hit in the morning a building in Hadath, South Beirut, very close to the church. It is in this climate of generalized uncertainty and a fear that remains present, even if outwardly contained, that many Lebanese families continue to live. For some, it is impossible to return to their villages destroyed in South Lebanon; for others, concern remains that a sudden strike may again occur where they have returned to live, for lack of another place to stay.

During our stay in Lebanon, we visited a large number of youth groups belonging to the wide diversity of the Churches present in this country. We thus met Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholics, Protestants from various Churches, Roman Catholics, Syriac Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Assyrians, Chaldeans… Everywhere a warm welcome and rich exchanges. We also receive a warm welcome in Tripoli from two young Sunni Muslim adults who show us their commitments to families living in difficult conditions. During the recent months of war, with Sunni friends, they welcomed a large number of Shiite Muslims who had fled South Lebanon bombarded. When one knows the enormous tensions that have existed for centuries between Sunnis and Shiites in Tripoli, these testimonies of solidarity are truly extraordinary!

- On April 30, we take part in Beirut in a meeting of about 200 Muslims and Christians. It was for the people to bear witness to acts of solidarity and friendship that have taken place between Muslims and Lebanese Christians during all these recent months of war under Israeli bombardments. We met the city’s Muslim imam from Sidon in the South of Lebanon, whose mosque had been completely destroyed, and whom the local Catholic priest had helped. Among the various interventions, two mothers of families, whose daughters had met at Taizé last summer, testified to their new and deep friendship: when bombs began to fall in South Lebanon in the autumn, the young Muslim woman called her Christian friend to ask for help. Immediately, the Christian mother spoke to the mother of the young Muslim woman and told her to come quickly with all her family to stay in her own home in Beirut, even if it was not very large. This welcome lasted for the 2 months of the impossible return to South Lebanon.

- May 1: With about thirty youth leaders from various Christian confessions, we set off by bus for South Lebanon, where we visit ruined villages following various bombardments and raids by Israeli troops. We are welcomed each time by priests and pastors who were in charge in these villages. We go to pray in their destroyed churches. I am surprised that in every place, all these priests and pastors from different Christian denominations insisted on singing the Resurrection of Christ… What resilience and courage in this Lebanese people in the face of the many trials endured for so many years!

- May 3: A beautiful ecumenical meeting brings together an entire afternoon and an evening of about 300 youth from the various Churches present in Beirut and nearby regions.

We had met during our various visits almost all of these youths and their leaders. The theme of Hope was at the center of this gathering. A beautiful prayer with Taizé chants closed the evening.

- The last week of our stay in Lebanon was devoted to visits in the city of Zahle and the Beqaa plain. We meet each of the 4 bishops residing in Zahle: the Greek-Catholic bishop, the Maronite bishop, the Greek Orthodox bishop, the Syriac-orthodox bishop. These bishops know each other very well and meet regularly. One day, guided by a Armenian priest friend, we discover Anjar, the Armenian village that welcomed thousands of Armenians after the great genocide of 1915. Finally, a visit that marked us at the end of our stay in Lebanon was the day spent in the Christian village of Deir el Ahmar, in North Beqaa. It is there that the village Christians welcomed thousands of Shiite Muslims from the surrounding villages in the autumn last year, at the time of the major Israeli bombardments on the Beqaa Valley.