Pope Benedict XVI today (September 16, 2012) urged Arab leaders -- at a huge open-air mass in Lebanon -- to work for reconciliation in a Middle East battered by Syria's civil war and blazing with fury over a film mocking the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, according to the Reuters website.
"May God grant to your country, to Syria, and to the Middle East , the gift of peaceful hearts, the silencing of weapons, and the cessation of all violence," the pope said in a prayer after a mass that organizers said was attended by 350,000 people.
Activists say more than 27,000 people have been killed in Syria's 18-month-old, mainly Sunni Muslim uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and the Shi'ite Muslims.
Peace between warring factions and among the many religious groups in the Middle East has been a central theme of the pope's visit to Lebanon, along with his call to Christians not to leave the region despite war and growing pressure from radical Islamists.
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