Pope urges Middle East peace at Beirut Mass

BEIRUT -- Pope Benedict XVI made a sweeping appeal yesterday for peace in Syria and the Middle East, decrying the violence "which generates so much suffering." Speaking at an open-air Mass before a huge crowd, he urged the international community and Arab countries in particular to find a solution to end the conflict in neighboring Syria.

"Why so much horror? Why so many dead," Benedict said, lamenting that "the first victims are women and children." With pilgrims from across the Middle East in the crowd, he said Christians must do their part to end the "grim trail of death and destruction" in the region. "I appeal to you all to be peacemakers," he said.

Benedict spoke from an altar built on land reclaimed with debris from Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, pressing ahead with his call for peace and reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.

In the evening, the pope boarded a Lebanese Middle East Airlines jet for the return to Rome.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said organizers in Beirut put the crowd at some 350,000 people.

Benedict said that justice and peace are needed in building "a fraternal society, for building fellowship."

Fadia Kiwan, a political-science professor at Beirut's St. Joseph University, said the pope's visit is political and its message is that "the West does not want Christians to leave the Middle East." She added that the visit calls "for living together between Muslims and Christians."

The 85-year-old pope appeared to hold up well in the Mediterranean heat. The crowd cheered and waved tiny Vatican and Lebanese flags as Benedict arrived in his bulletproof popemobile at the Mass site on the Beirut waterfront.