Papal warning renewed

POPE JOHN Paul has asked Lebanon's warring Christian factions to stop fighting among themselves as a first step toward uniting the country. "God does not wish that Christian disunity should put into question the very health of Lebanon," he said in a letter to Cardinal Antoine Pierre Khoraiche, patriarch of Lebanon's Maronite Catholics.
It was the third time since March 17 that the Pope has asked for an end to the fighting in Lebanon, and thefirst time during this period that he has focused his remarks on Christians.
On March 17 he had called for an end to Lebanon's "internal divisions and discords." He said the country "for too long has suffered atrociously," especially the civilian population.
On March 29 the Pope told a group of Lebanese legislators. visiting the Vatican to begin "a constructive dialogue founded on mutual confidence and civil peace."
On April 6, the Vatican also released a telegramme in which the Pope expressed sorrow over the "savage killing" of a Dutch Jesuit in Lebanon. The body of Fr Nicolas Kluiters, 44, was discovered on April 1 in a ravine near the village of Nabha in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon.