Pope Leo visits a wounded Lebanon in his first journey to the Center East : NPR
Pope Leo XIV prays in entrance of the tomb of Saint Charbel Makhlouf on the Monastery of Saint Maroun, in Annaya, Lebanon, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025.
Domenico Stinellis/AP
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Domenico Stinellis/AP
BEIRUT — Pope Leo XIV is in Lebanon on his first go to to the Center East since he was chosen as chief of the world’s Catholics in Could. He arrives at a pivotal time for the nation, buffeted by battle with Israel and a devastating financial disaster.
The pope arrived Sunday night from Turkey, his first international vacation spot, the place he commemorated the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea in present-day Iznik, the origin of a testomony of religion nonetheless recited world-wide in church buildings at this time.
On Monday morning, well-wishers, many carrying rain-coats, lined the roads behind a steel railing below drizzly skies as his convoy made its means by the winding roads close to Beirut to the mountain-top tomb of a nineteenth century hermit now acknowledged as Saint Charbel Makhlouf. Some threw rose petals on the popemobile because it made its technique to the Maroun Monastery.
On the tomb of the saint acknowledged for his miracles of therapeutic, Pope Leo spoke of Charbel’s silence, humbleness and poverty, which he described as “radical” qualities counter-cultural to fashionable life.
The pope offered a present of a hand-made votive lamp entwined with silver olive branches, saying he entrusted “Lebanon and its individuals to Saint Charbel so they’d at all times stroll within the mild of Christ.”
Lebanon performed an vital position within the historical past of early Christianity. The Galilee the place Christians consider Jesus preached extends into a part of present-day south Lebanon. The Maroun monastery dates again to a century after Jesus was crucified.
Christians are believed to comprise about 30% of the Lebanese inhabitants, though there has not been a exact determine for the reason that final census, below French rule in 1932. Christians accounted for greater than half of Lebanon’s inhabitants on the time.
The nation is now majority Muslim, however Christians nonetheless maintain extra political energy than in another nation within the area. By conference, the publish of Lebanese president is reserved for a Maronite Catholic.
Folks wait outdoors the Monastery of Saint Maroun forward of Pope Leo XIV’s arrival in Annaya, Lebanon, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025.
Hassan Ammar/AP
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Hassan Ammar/AP
Arriving from Turkey, the pope urged Lebanese leaders to forge peace and provide hope to the nation’s individuals.
Many Lebanese residents have left the nation since Lebanon’s monetary collapse in 2019 and a devastating explosion at Beirut’s port the next 12 months, which highlighted state dysfunction and corruption. Lebanese migrants are disproportionately Christian, partly as a result of they’ve been welcomed by many Western international locations.
On Monday, Pope Leo XIV visited the Shrine of Our Girl of Lebanon in close by Harissa, a significant pilgrimage web site. He spoke about the way forward for the Church in Lebanon and listened to a priest, a nun, and a home employee describe the struggling of Christians and Muslims throughout latest conflicts.
A priest from the north of Lebanon, Yohanna Fuad Fahad, described attempting to assist Syrian refugees who flooded throughout the border throughout Syria’s 14-year-long civil battle solely to be confronted with Lebanon’s financial disaster and left with no electrical energy, working water or any technique to make a dwelling.
He stated extra refugees, terrified and impoverished, quietly arrived after the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime by insurgent fighters final December. Father Yohanna stated he realized it solely after seeing Syrian cash within the alms plate at Sunday Mass. He stated he went seeking individuals to assist and stated the church wanted to achieve out and assist these struggling.
A nun, Sister Dima, associated her determination to remain in Balbaak, a largely Shiite city within the Bekaa valley, in the course of the battle between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah, to have the ability to take care of Christian and Muslim households in want.
And a church volunteer and home employee from the Philippines who gave her identify solely as Lauren, described a small household of international employees intentionally locked in a home by their employer who fled in the course of the combating. Escaping from the home, she says they walked three days with their new child to achieve the church for assist.
“By way of our church’s mission I’ve witnessed miracles…small acts of affection that change lives,” she stated.
The pope, showing moved, evoked his predecessor Pope Francis, who had pressured that Christians couldn’t stay detached to tragedy and sorrow.
Pope Leo spoke of the necessity to provide alternatives to younger individuals: “It’s obligatory, even among the many rubble of a world that has its personal painful failures, to supply them concrete and viable prospects for rebirth and future development.”
No Go to to the South
The papal convoy drove on newly paved roads — the identical roads that had been beforehand deserted by Lebanon’s monetary and financial ongoing disaster.
“They began work on the roads in 2018 after which stopped due to the financial disaster and the coronavirus lockdown after which every part else,” says Hanady Moukawem, head of the municipality of Daroun-Harissa, simply earlier than the go to. She described the pope’s journey right here as an emblem of hope that there shall be higher instances.
Pope Leo XIV waves from the popemobile as he arrives to the Monastery of Saint Maroun in Annaya, Lebanon, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025.
Hassan Ammar/AP
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Hassan Ammar/AP
On Tuesday the pope holds a prayer Mass at Beirut’s waterfront near the location of the explosion earlier than concluding the go to.
His go to focuses on Beirut and the north of the nation. In line with native church officers, the Vatican determined it was too doubtlessly harmful to go to the south of Lebanon the place Israel has launched nearly day by day assaults regardless of a year-old ceasefire.
Hezbollah – the Lebanese Shia militia and political occasion – has held its fireplace for the reason that ceasefire and is below intense stress from the Lebanese authorities to surrender its remaining weapons.
Most of the Christian villages alongside the border with Israel have suffered the identical devastation as Muslim border villages, with destroyed houses and infrastructure.
Within the Lebanese village of Canaa, the place Jesus is alleged to have carried out his first miracle of turning water into wine, Christians now comprise solely about 10 % of the inhabitants. For a lot of leaving the nation, the primary cease is the Lebanese capital.
“It occurred in levels,” for the reason that Nineteen Fifties till now,” says Chakib Hadad, a retired math instructor and former native church council member in Canaa. “They go to Beirut to work within the factories or different locations. They promote their land right here and purchase flats and that is it.”
