Beirut, Lebanon, Sep 15, 2012 / 15:10 pm
Pope Benedict XVI has challenged young Christians and Muslims in the Middle East to reject the path of violence and hate and instead unleash a "revolution of love."
"It is vital that the Middle East in general, looking at you, should understand that Muslims and Christians, Islam and Christianity, can live side by side without hatred, with respect for the beliefs of each person, so as to build together a free and humane society," the Pope told an open-air gathering of young people the in Bkerke, Lebanon Sept. 15.
Gathered in the square in front of the residence of the country's Maronite Patriarchate, the tens of thousands of young people heard the Pope tell them that they were "the future of this fine country and of the Middle East in general."
In recent years educated young people have been at the vanguard of anti-government protests across the Middle East, the so-called "Arab Spring." Pope Benedict used his address to outline a different revolution: one begun by Jesus Christ.