My Paschal Pilgrimage — Part 4

The next stop on my whirlwind Paschal Pilgrimage (seven countries in 18 days) was Beirut and Lebanon, my first time in any Middle Eastern country. A few months ago, when Patriarch Gregorios contacted me about a book of pastoral letters I was publishing for him, he insisted that I should come and visit him in Lebanon or Syria. I replied that Syria was more dangerous for Americans and is even listed on the US State Department “do not visit” list. So I suggested I could visit the next time he would be at his residence in Beirut. Although his “see” is Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem, he splits his time between two residences in Beirut and Damascus, for the most part.

 

So we agreed that after my appointed audience with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, I would be “in the neighborhood” and could get a flight from Istanbul to Beirut for a short visit. Then he also told me of a pilgrimage he was leading to Rome with his Synod of Bishops, clergy and lay persons from around the world to meet Pope Benedict XVI and have a Divine Liturgy at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, in honor of the anniversary of Saint Paul this year. I asked if I could join his group in Rome, and he readily agreed. So the schedule was set and he agreed to have a driver and car waiting for my on my arrival at the airport, and that I could stay at the seminary/residence that the Patriarchate has north of Beirut in Rabweh.

 

Unfortunately, the Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Beirut leaves at 11:00 PM and arrives in Beirut at 1:15 AM. So I decided I should stay in Istanbul for the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning and travel to Beirut that evening, arriving early Monday morning. I faxed my flight details to the Patriarchate in Beirut and hoped for the best.

 

All went smoothly, no problems with the flight or entering Lebanon (not even a visa is required any more for Americans), but then I got a little nervous when I could not find my name on any of the signs held by drivers waiting for passengers. After searching about 15 minutes, I decided there must have been some problem and I was “on my own.”

 

In the arrivals area there was a larger poster for the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Beirut. So feeling this was the safest place for an American alone in Beirut to “hide out” until I could make contact with the Patriarch, I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. The driver tried to get me to use another less expensive place nearby, but I insisted on the Intercontinental. It was five star, quite nice, a great large room with all the amenities, and a great view of the Mediterranean Sea that I found the next morning. I was on the 19th floor. Well, a little “R&R” never does any harm!

 

After sleeping in a bit (I finally got to sleep about 3 am), I started my phone search of the Patriarch. The cell phone number I had for him did not seem to work (I had an extra 3!), and I had difficulty finding the Patriarchate office numbers. But after a few hours of tracking down, I finally got through in Beirut. The Patriarch was still in Damascus, so I then called that number and was told he was in a meeting. I called back later in the afternoon and finally spoke to His Beatitude. Indeed, there was a misunderstanding – they thought my flight arrived at 1:15 PM not AM – they had misread my fax. So arrangements were made for a car and driver to pick me up the next morning – I offered to take a taxi but His Beatitude insisted it would be too complicated to explain how to get to the seminary to a taxi driver who would not understand any English. I agreed.

 

Beirut is a city in transition, for sure. My hotel was quite modern and clean and somewhat of an oasis in the center of the city, just above a modern marina. But it also was next to several other hotels and apartment buildings under construction, and even a few bombed out buildings left over from the years of civil war. As with many cities, there are nice new, clean neighborhoods and buildings right next to old, dilapidated and dirty ones.

 

The drive northward from the hotel into the hills took about 30 minutes, and after winding through a number of twists and turns – even on the same road – and a climb of several thousand feet elevation, we arrived at a very large curved building that sits atop a mountain. It is the Patriarchate’s seminary, chancery and residence in Lebanon. Patriarch Maximos IV purchased the entire hillside decades ago, and development still continues with several construction projects underway. It seems the building can house about 100 students with a great view of Beirut and the sea. I’m not sure about the students’ rooms, but mine had a private bath and shower, with a great balcony and view. One wing is the patriarchal offices and another is his residence. The chapel is tremendous with icons decorating every square inch of wall and ceiling space.

 

After settling in, I had an hour’s meeting with His Beatitude and we discussed many projects. I presented him with copies of his book of pastoral letters in presentation form for his own library and one for the Pope for him to present, and also a specially bound edition of We Are All Brothers/3, the festschrift I published last December in honor (and now in memory) of Archbishop Vsevolod, to which Patriarch Gregorios made a major contribution. We also discussed another book project of his in English on the liturgy on which we are working, and the status of Orientale Lumen TeleVision (he is our patron), as well as other future OL Conferences. After a wide range of discussions, we had a light lunch in the faculty dining room near the large refrectory.

 

Then the he told me the news – because of anticipated trouble the next day, we would be leaving VERY early in the morning for the airport. He and the bishops would be on a private plane and I and some of the other priests and staff going to Rome would be on a commercial flight that would leave at 6:40 AM. We had to leave from the seminary at 3:30 AM for security reasons. So I laid down to sleep at 9 PM, but could not get even 10 minutes of sleep, constantly worried that I would wake at 3 to be ready on time! It was like being on an overnight flight without any sleep, except I wasn’t on the plane yet.

 

So at 3:30 my bags were brought down to the front courtyard and to my surprise there was a whole caravan of vehicles ready to leave. One Cadillac was for the Patriarch and his secretary, another sedan for a few bishops who gathered at the seminary for the trip, two other vehicles for me and the staff, two more carrying nothing but luggage, AND a military escort front and rear with about 8 soldiers in two cars. With no traffic at that time of the morning we made our way to the airport easily, checked in, and then had to wait about 2 hours for the flight to leave. After we arrived in Rome, we learned of the violence that broke out in Beirut a few hours after our departure. In fact, we passed another military convoy on the road to the airport which included several armored personnel carriers with tank tracks, and I suspect that unit might have been the one first attacked with two soldiers killed. The airport has been closed since we left, and now many on the trip are uncertain when they can return to Lebanon from Rome. Although I was a little inconvenienced to not get any sleep and leave so early, I am now VERY glad we did, or else we may have been stuck IN Lebanon indefinitely!

 

My only regret is that because of all the scheduling issues, and the preparations that His Beatitude and staff were making for the trip to Rome, I was not able to see much of the city or of Lebanon itself. I was hoping to see at least a few functioning churches, but that will have to wait for another visit – whenever that might be possible!

 

Next Part 5 – Rome and Home