Pope pushes peace message on second day in Lebanon
Pope Leo will meet with leaders of various religious sects in Lebanon, where he is expected to encourage them not to flee the country despite years of conflict, political paralysis and an economic crisis that has led to waves of migration.
Leo, the first US pope, will visit Lebanon’s Christian community before hosting interfaith dialogue with Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim, Shiite Muslim and Druze communities, as well as migrant workers.
In what he described as a peace mission to the country, the Pope on Sunday called on Lebanon’s political leaders to continue their peace efforts despite facing an “extremely complex, conflictual and uncertain” regional situation.
70-year-old Leo will visit Lebanon until Tuesday for the second leg of his first foreign trip, which started in Türkiye.
There is a crowded travel schedule on Monday. He visited the tomb of St. Charbel, a Catholic saint revered in the area, and will attend the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon.
Crowds gathered to greet him near the grave early Monday, carrying umbrellas to shelter from the rain and howling as his motorcade approached to the sound of church bells.
“We were really waiting for the Pope’s visit because now it increases our hope. He came to confirm to us that what we experience will not always be like this,” said Father Toni Elias, a Maronite priest from Rmeich, a Christian town near the Israeli border.
“And we believe he brings with him the message of peace that we really need.”
Lebanon, which has the largest share of Christians in the Middle East, was shaken by the expansion of the Gaza conflict as Israel and the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah went to war, culminating in a devastating Israeli offensive.
The country, which hosts one million Syrian and Palestinian refugees, is also trying to emerge from a severe economic crisis after decades of wasteful spending that left the economy in a tailspin in late 2019.
Leo will host a meeting with young people and is expected to encourage them to work for peace in a country that still faces almost daily Israeli bombardment.
Israel says its ongoing offensives since the 2024 ceasefire agreement are to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its military capabilities and posing a new threat to communities in northern Israel.
His program also includes prayer at the site of the chemical explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020 that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.
He will also lead an open-air service on the Beirut waterfront and visit a psychiatric hospital, one of the few mental health centers in Lebanon, where caregivers and residents eagerly await his arrival.
