President Michel Sleiman and Patriarch Beshara Rai’s simultaneous announcements of Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to Lebanon from Sept. 14-16 – during which he will sign the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation for the Middle East – is a sign of the coordination and cooperation between the president and the patriarch.

Sources close to the president said that during Sleiman and Rai’s closed-door meeting before Easter Mass in Bkirki, the two addressed pressing local and regional issues in detail, focusing on the grave dangers looming on the horizon.

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