Jonathan Savage and John discuss Pope Leo's first international trip

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
John Mounts in for JT in Pope Leo. He is
taking his first international trip. How's that going? We check
in with Jonathan Savage. He's in London, Jonathan, how's it going?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello there, Good morning. It's been pretty smoothly for Pope Leo.
He's making some headlines though. He's come on this trip
to Turkey and Lebanon with I suppose two main themes,
firstly peace and secondly coexistence. He's been talking about the
importance of peace, of securing piece of working towards peace

(00:30):
and places where they're a conflict, and also talking about
how different religions, different faces should live side by side
in peace. He's been the two countries, I say, with
very different environments. Firstly to Turkey, a country of eighty
million people, the vast majority are Sunny Muslims, although it's
officially a secular country, only thirty thousand Catholics there. But

(00:53):
now he's in Lebanon, which has the highest proportion of
Christians in the Middle East, with about a third of
it's five million population being Christian, and as you would
imagine there, his reception from local Catholics in particular has
been one of adoration, with flag waving well wishers lining
the root of his motorcade, some of them tossing flower

(01:14):
petals and rice.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
And while the Pope is in the Middle East, as
he weighed in and all on the conflict between Israel
and the Palestinians, he.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Has to some extent. Yes, Pope Leo speaking to journalists
on the plane journey from Istanbul to Beirut, and he
talked about that conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He
says the solution has to include a Palestinian state, and
he added that we all know that at this time
Israel still does not accept that solution, so clearly setting

(01:48):
up a difference between himself and the Israeli government. But
he did say that the Vatican is still friends with
Israel I would like to be a mediating voice in
the conflict.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
A two state solution is not some thing that Benjamin
net and Yahoo supports, how is it received in the
rest of the Western world.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
The Tuesday solution is beyond israel I think, considered to
be still the favored solution of most governments in the
Western world. So they will be well unsurprised to hear
Popo Lelio say this. Please that he is saying this
in such close proximity to that region, Poblio, who's tried

(02:26):
a fairly soft line in comparison to his predecessor, Pope Francis,
in terms of his pronouncements about world affairs, perhaps coming
out of a shell a little bit on this first
overseas trip.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Jonathan Savage live from London, Thank you so much for
giving us the update on the latest with the Pope.
Hope you have a great rest of your day.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Thanks John. Take care,