Pope Leo XIV calls on Lebanese leaders to be true peacemakers as he seeks to bring message of hope

Leo is fulfilling a promise of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who had wanted to visit Lebanon for years but was unable to because of its crises and as his health worsened.

Lebanon’s political system, based on sectarian power-sharing, has been prone to deadlock with lengthy power vacuums and regular stalemates over controversial issues, including the investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Most recently, the country has been deeply split over calls for Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group and political party, to disarm after fighting a war with Israel last year that left the country deeply damaged.

Leo didn’t directly reference the recent war or the debate over weapons in his speech at the presidential palace. But he acknowledged the hardships the Lebanese people have endured.

“You 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 radicalization of identities and conflicts,” Leo said. “But you have always wanted, and known how, to start again.”

He told Lebanese leaders to seek the truth and engage in a process of reconciliation with “those who have suffered wrongs and injustice” if they truly want to be considered peacemakers.

A culture of reconciliation, he said, must come from the top with leaders willing to put their personal interests aside and “recognize the common good as superior to the particular.”

The highlight of Leo’s Lebanese visit will come on Tuesday, his last day, when he spends time in silent prayer at the site of the Aug. 4, 2020, port blast and meets with some of its victims.

For many people, Leo's mere presence was a message.

"It shows that Lebanon is not forgotten,” said Bishop George, archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Beirut.

Heavy security for pope’s arrival

At the Beirut airport, where his plane landed with a Lebanese military jet escort, Leo was greeted first by President Joseph Aoun, then by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

He moved through the streets of the Lebanese capital in a closed popemobile, a return to the past after Pope Francis eschewed closed popemobiles. Lebanese troops deployed on both sides of the road and a helicopter flew overhead.

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, had declined to discuss the types of vehicles Leo would use in Lebanon, and whether they would be bulletproofed. The visit came just a week after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed five people, including a top Hezbollah official.

As the convoy reached the entrance of the presidential palace, a dance troupe performed dabke, a traditional Arab folk dance, under heavy rain.

A visit meant to give hope

In Turkey, Leo marked an important Christian anniversary as Ankara has positioned itself as a key intermediary in talks to end the conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.

In Lebanon, Leo was expected to try to encourage Lebanese who believe their leaders have failed them, and to call on Lebanese Christians to stay or, if they have already moved abroad, to come home.

A Muslim-majority country where about a third of the population is Christian, Lebanon has always been a priority for the Vatican, a bulwark for Christians throughout the region. After years of conflict, Christian communities that date from the time of the Apostles have shrunk.

In his welcome speech, Leo said “much good can come” from the Lebanese diaspora. “However, we must not forget that remaining in our homeland and working day by day to develop a civilization of love and peace remains something very valuable,” he said.

Lebanon’s ongoing conflict with Israel

Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire last year that nominally ended a two-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel continues to launch near-daily airstrikes that it says aim to stop the militant group from rebuilding. The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and causing widespread destruction.

The pope “is coming to bless us and for the sake of peace,” said Farah Saadeh, a Beirut resident walking on the city’s seaside promenade. “We hope nothing is going to happen after his departure.”

Before Leo’s arrival, Hezbollah urged the pope to express his “rejection to injustice and aggression” that the country is being subjected to. referring to the Israeli strikes.

The group also urged its supporters to line up along the papal convoy route from the airport to the presidential palace, which is punctuated by bombed-out buildings from the recent war. Hundreds of them did so, waving the flags of Lebanon and the Vatican.

Mounir Younes, the leader of a Hezbollah-affiliated scout troupe, said they aimed to send a message about “the importance of coexistence and national unity.”

“Muslim-Christian coexistence is a great wealth that we must hold onto,” he said.

Hezbollah — a primarily Shiite group — has allied with several Christian political groups in the country, including the Free Patriotic Movement and Marada Movement. However, the Christian party with the largest parliamentary bloc, the Lebanese Forces, is an opponent of Hezbollah and has criticized the group for pulling the country into a war with Israel. The country is now deeply divided over calls for the group to disarm.

Syrian Christians coming

In neighboring Syria, hundreds of thousands of Christians fled during the country’s 14 years of civil war.

A delegation of some 300 Syrian Christians, headed by a Greek Melkite Catholic priest, traveled to Lebanon to join a meeting between Leo and youth groups and pray in a public mass on Beirut’s waterfront.

“We are in need of someone like the pope to come and give us hope as Christians” at a time of “fear of an unknown future,” said 24-year-old Dima Awwad, one of the delegation members. “We wish that the pope would come to visit Syria as he visited Lebanon, to reassure the people and to feel that we are present as eastern Christians and that we need to be in this place.”

Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb, Bassem Mroue and Ali Sharafeddine in Beirut contributed to this report.

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