Pope Leo XIV landed in Lebanon on Sunday, on the second leg of his first foreign trip as head of the Catholic Church.
Dabke dancers performed energetically in the pouring rain as the pontiff arrived at Lebanon’s presidential palace in his Popemobile. Doves were broadcast on a big screen in front of him, before his official motto for this leg of the trip appeared on the screen, reading: “blessed are the peacemakers,” taken from the Gospel of Matthew.
Civilians had also come out to welcome him along the route there, including residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs – heavily hit with air strikes last year – with Hizbullah’s Imam Mahdi Scouts also assembling to perform.
The trip will see Leo meet Lebanese political leaders and Catholic patriarchs; lead an outdoor mass by the Mediterranean Sea; pray at the tomb of St Charbel Makhlouf at the Monastery of St Maroun; and visit medical staff and patients at the Sisters of the Cross Hospital.
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The pontiff spent the last few days in Turkey, where he met president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, and travelled to Iznik to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of an 325 AD gathering of bishops that produced the Nicaean Creed.
Around one third of Lebanon’s population are Christian. While welcoming Leo, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said there is “a fundamental human duty in preserving Lebanon, for if this model of equal and free existence between people of different beliefs fails, nowhere else can this model be replicated.”
In his subsequent address, Leo said peace is much more than just a word in Lebanon. “Here peace is a desire and a vocation. It is a gift and a work in progress.”
He said Lebanese people have acted as peacemakers “in circumstances that are highly complex ... There is a shining quality that distinguishes the Lebanese. You are a people who do not give up but in the face of trials you always know how to rise again with courage.”
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The Lebanese “have suffered greatly from the consequences of an economy that kills, from global instability that has devastating repercussions also in the Levant, and from the radicalisation of identities and conflicts,” he said. “Mutual dialogue, even amid misunderstandings, is the path that leads to reconciliation.”
It was not only Lebanese citizens who were waiting in anticipation to see the pontiff. Marilyn Garay (55), a Filipino migrant worker, told The Irish Times she was “so excited” and hoped to attend the waterfront mass on Tuesday.
“I’m facing many challenges, my family, being a mother”, she said, and this was an “answered prayer ... like a daughter longing to see her father.”
“We are all very lucky that he is visiting here in Lebanon because you know what we are facing now. Not only in Lebanon. Our prayers are for peace in the whole world.”
Conflict between Hizbullah and Israel erupted in October 2023, and though a ceasefire came into force one year ago, Israel has continued to carry out regular attacks in the south, east and Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing hundreds of people – including at least 127 civilians, according to the United Nations – while accusing Hizbullah of attempting to rebuild.
Some Christians in southern Lebanon expressed sadness that the pontiff would not spend time there. But Fr Najib al Amil, a priest based in Rmeich, a Christian town close to the Israeli border, said he understands that it is not possible for him to do everything.
“The Pope’s visit to Lebanon has great significance ... He is the head of the Catholic Church worldwide, the leader of more than one and a half billion people ... The teachings of the Catholic Church are always about peace between nations, and this visit is fundamental today,” he said.
