TEHRAN – Mr. Pope, you too can, like Christ, bring about the greatest miracle of peace of the twenty-first century in reality.

Greetings, with humility and respect, to you, the successor of the great Christ.

I have an unusual yet very real proposal for you.

I wish that, in this century filled with war, killing, and the indifference of young people toward spirituality, you would use this historic opportunity of your courageous trip to Lebanon so that all of us — Muslims, Christians, Jews, and even nonbelievers — may kneel before your humane action as the continuator of the great, peace-seeking Christ.

All it takes is for you to extend your words about the path of Christ, spoken so often beside the vast gatherings in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, to another place as well — to continue them in action — so that all of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, may once again truly believe in the existence of miracles even in the present time.

Just as we all certainly believe in the Holy Scripture, where that great and sacred Christ, in order to bring faith to the people of his era, raised the dead and healed the blind, and even gave his own life, accepting crucifixion and the pain of iron nails — you, too, can create today’s miracle.

This experience has already produced deeply humane and miraculous results once before in Lebanon.

In 1975, during the Lebanese civil war between various Muslim, Christian, Communist, and Palestinian factions, a Shi’a cleric named Imam Musa al-Sadr announced a sit-in and hunger strike in the middle of the battlefield, at the Al-Safa Mosque in Beirut. He said that until the killing and fighting among these groups ended and a real ceasefire was declared, he would not leave this mosque under fire. At the beginning of his action, he spoke the following words — words that all of us around the world had expected to hear and see acted upon in the Vatican’s press statements over these more than two years of war, and mostly from you:

“All yesterday and last night I heard the complaints of men and the cries of orphans and widows. Despite all my efforts and without closing my eyes for a moment, the shelling did not stop and matters grew worse. At two in the afternoon, I decided to stage a sit-in and begin fasting. I have nothing with me except the Book of God and a little water, and I will remain here until I am martyred or the country returns to its natural state. I said farewell to my mother, wife, and children, and came here to pray and ask God to save the homeland.”

And so it was that, out of respect for him, everyone stopped the fighting.

I am certain that you, too, are willing to use your stature to save innocent people — that when you set foot in Lebanon, you will not leave until war and crimes against that land truly come to an end. Christ’s miracle two thousand years ago was to bring the dead back to life and give sight to the blind; your miracle in the twenty-first century can be, in reality, far more contemporary and startling for today’s world: preventing the killing of the living and protecting children and women in Lebanon from becoming maimed.

I suggest that if you intend to strengthen faith and belief in the existence of God and His messenger Christ, you forgo several months of residence in the splendid palace of the Vatican and remain in Lebanon — to show, in action, to all of us Muslims, Jews, nonbelievers in God, and even Christians of weak faith, that Christ’s miracles for peace are still possible even in the twenty-first century.

Otherwise, I will join the logic of my friend, Rabbi Phil Bentley, a Jewish-American peace activist, who said in a debate with atheists: “I too do not believe in that mistaken god you have imagined and are fighting against in your minds.”

Now, in this journey, the God of Christ has entrusted you with the same power that Christ entrusted to his good disciple Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the powers of hell will never overcome it. I will give you (Peter) the keys of the kingdom of God, so that whatever door you open on earth shall be opened in heaven, and whatever door you close on earth shall be closed in heaven.”

Your Holiness Pope Leon,

The people of the world have heard many words about faith from the mouths of ISIS in the name of Islam, from Netanyahu in the name of Judaism, and from Trump in the name of Christianity. Yet beyond every belief, religion, and ideology, all of us across the world today look to your practical miracle in Lebanon to strengthen our faith.

You most certainly can restore to us — the people of the world — the true faith and peace-seeking spirit of Christ through your actions.

With apologies for the candor and boldness of this request,

from one person representing all peace-loving people of the world, regardless of religion, race, or political affiliation