On the occasion of the Pope’s visit to Lebanon, Hezbollah issued a statement on Saturday presenting Lebanon as a bridge of interreligious coexistence, calling for the protection of human rights at the ethnic level, condemning the atrocities in Gaza and aggression in Lebanon, and reaffirming its commitment to national sovereignty, consensual democracy and unified life.
The full text of the resistance group’s message to Pope Leo XIV is below.
In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Merciful.
The Pope, the supreme pope of the Catholic Church in the world,
Most respected Pope Leo XIV.
Greetings and peace be with you.
First of all, we would like to extend our full welcome and high gratitude to you, your esteemed person, and your visit to Lebanon. This beautiful country is blessed by God with a geographical location and an orderly sectarian diversity within a framework of communal living and general agreement, two characteristics essential to the stability of the political system and national security.
Your predecessor, Pope John Paul II, previously considered Lebanon “not just a country, but a message.” Reality confirms that Lebanon, with its diverse composition, represents a civilizational link between adherents of two divine messages, Christianity and Islam, and between adherents of religious, cultural and secular orientations of all countries and continents of the world.
For all religions, and even for secular ideological orientations, when humans are the focus of concern, one can feel hopeful and optimistic about the possibility of achieving lasting peace and security.
Given your commitment to human rights and the need to respect and protect them in your guidance and messages, we affirm that these rights extend beyond the individual to a broader realm: the realm of people.
When it comes to the conflicts the world is witnessing today, the deeper cause lies in the denial by some of any commitment or recognition of the rights of other human beings, whether due to differences in religion, color, race, language, or interests.
It is a well-known fact that the erosion of respect for human rights among some people, regardless of their leadership, group, political party, sect, nation, or organization, fosters tendencies toward greed, domination, and subjugation, and a tendency to resort to force instead of justice.
The tragedy witnessed in Gaza, occupied Palestine over the past two years and which continues today, is a tragedy resulting from the occupier’s persistent deprivation of the Palestinian people’s rights to land, homeland and self-determination, and from the failure of the international system to adopt the scale of justice and rights to find a solution to the ongoing conflict in the region between the owners of land and homeland and the usurpers who occupy both.
Similarly, the suffering that the Lebanese people are experiencing stems from the Zionist occupation of parts of their land, continued attacks against them, and threats to their own security and stability, resulting from their greed for control over their water, land, and natural gas wealth, and their attempts to impose unrestricted security, expansionism, and submission to political conditions on the Lebanese people.
Undoubtedly, the Zionist occupation receives unlimited support from great powers that, very unfortunately, share the tendency to greedily control the interests of our country and the region, without any regard for the rights of our people and the peoples of the region.
What Israel’s enemies have done to the Palestinian people in Gaza can be described as a crime of genocide. And what it is doing in Lebanon is a continued invasion that will be rejected and condemned.
We, Hezbollah, seize the blessed opportunity of your visit to our country, Lebanon, to affirm our commitment on our part to a unified common life. Toward democracy by consensus. To maintain domestic security and stability. And we value our national sovereignty and its protection by standing with our armed forces and our people against any invasion or occupation of our lands and country.
We also reject foreign interference that seeks to impose sovereignty over our country and people, and affirm the legitimate right to seize the powers of our national decisions and constitutional authorities.
And as our creed affirms that the followers of Jesus Christ, Son of Mary, are ambassadors of love, protection of rights, and respect for humanity, we trust in the Pope’s rejection of the injustice and aggression to which our homeland of Lebanon is subjected at the hands of the Zionist invaders and their supporters.
This is what we entrust to you as you express your care, love and cooperation to all Lebanese people. We wish His Holiness comfort and safety during his stay and ask Almighty God to grant justice, safety and relief to the oppressed peoples of the world.
I wish you all the best.