After decades of conflict, residents of the Christian town of Rmeich in Lebanon's war-battered south hope Pope Leo's upcoming trip to their country will bring peace - and the strength to stay as the region's Christian communities dwindle.

Rmaych

Residents of Rmaych, a predominantly Christian town in southern Lebanon, are hopeful that Pope Leo's upcoming visit will help bring peace and strengthen their shrinking Catholic community. The town, which has been home to Catholics for over 300 years, has largely avoided recent violence, in part due to local efforts to maintain neutrality and communicate with neighboring groups.

Despite being spared from direct conflict, Rmaych faces ongoing difficulties, including the decline of Christianity in the Middle East, the destruction of nearby villages, and restricted access to agricultural land due to military-enforced no-go zones. Pope Leo's three-day visit to Lebanon will not include the south, as the area remains under military occupation and subject to airstrikes.

Lebanese Christians pray papal visit keeps religion in Middle East

After decades of conflict, residents of Lebanon's Christian town of Ramesh say they hope Pope Leo's visit will bring peace and strengthen the dwindling Catholic community. Lebanon has the region's highest proportion of Christians, and Ramesh has been home to Catholics for more than 300 years. At St. George's Church, Rev. Najib Amel says the pope cares about Lebanon because if Christians here leave, there won't be any more in the Middle East. Despite its Middle East birthplace, Christianity has declined in the region from around 20 percent of its population a century ago to about five today and falling. Ramesh, a town of 6,000 nestled on Lebanon's southern border with Israel, has surprisingly emerged unscathed from the last two turbulent years of war. Mayor Hena Amel points to hilltops in the distance where he says the Israeli military holds positions. North of the town are predominantly Muslim villages that have been pummeled by Israeli airstrikes. Rev. Amel says to spare Ramesh from Israeli strikes, residents asked Hezbollah fighters not to launch missiles from the town. This war was indeed tough on the neighbors, but thank God nothing happened in Ramesh because we insisted on staying in our town and we tried to talk to the Hezbollah people we knew, with whom we have good ties and are friends with. Even though the town was spared, residents are struggling to return to normal life. Its schools once counted hundreds of students from nearby Shahite Muslim villages as pupils. But with those villages in ruins, few families have returned. The Israeli military is also enforcing no-go zones where Ramesh residents own olive groves and tobacco fields. Leo's three-day trip to Lebanon will skip the south. Israel's military still occupies posts there and bombs locations, it says, are Hezbollah arms depots.

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