AMMAN, Jordan (OSV News) — Lebanon eagerly awaits Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit, marking his first apostolic trip abroad, Catholic clergy organizers say.
“All the Lebanese people, the youth, the church, the government and Lebanon’s president are all very excited,” Father Jean Younes, secretary general of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon, told OSV News about the preparations.
While Pope Leo’s first trip abroad starts Nov. 27 in Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the beginnings of the Nicene Creed, recited by all mainline Christians, the Lebanon leg represents an entirely different facet.
“He chose Lebanon as his first country to make an apostolic visit. He’s coming to Lebanon on a pastoral visit to see his people,” Father Younes said. “Big difference!”
“We have many committees, many commissions working hard to make a beautiful and fruitful visit for His Holiness to Lebanon,” he said of the Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 event. “All the Lebanese people are preparing themselves to receive Pope Leo with great joy.”
Catholic clergy in Lebanon welcome Pope Leo’s call for hope and peace for both their country and the wider Middle East, struggling from years of devastating conflict and destruction. They also see the visit undergirding support for Christians buffeted by regional events.
Bishop César Essayan, apostolic vicar of Beirut, told OSV News that the pope comes to Lebanon to minister peace as the country is “sick from 50 years of war and is seeking peace and a new life. He comes to give us a message of hope and peace in this year of Jubilee,” he said.
In the years following the destructive civil war of 1975-1990, Lebanon has known little respite. Catholic clergy point to the past six years as particularly brutal with widespread protests over government corruption in 2019; a punishing economic crisis; the devastating Beirut port explosion of 2020; and the recent war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which killed some 4,000 people and destroyed parts of Beirut, and the country’s south and east.
Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, has repeatedly urged politicians to keep Lebanon out of regional conflicts. Speaking to the French news agency AFP, Cardinal Rai said the papal visit “will remind all Lebanese, Christians and Muslims alike, of their responsibility to preserve Lebanon.”
Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, Israel continues to carry out near-daily attacks in Lebanon.
The church has ministered to Lebanese and refugees struggling to stay afloat. “This visit will give a boost to the local church to reorganize and restrategize as it has suffered from an organization and an economic resource crisis in recent years,” Michel Constatin, CNEWA Pontifical Mission’s regional director for Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, told OSV News.
And yet, this tiny Mediterranean country, known as the “Land of the Cedars” and mentioned in the Bible, has held a special place for the Holy See, as Pope Leo’s visit marks the third such papal visit following that of St. John Paul II (1997) and Benedict XVI (2012) which drew huge, enthusiastic throngs.
“Lebanon is a message, not only a country, as Pope John Paul II said in his apostolic exhortation in 1997. He wanted to show the world that in this small country that suffered a lot and has different religious communities, we can make it to live together in peace — hopefully,” said Father Younes.
While Lebanon’s population is mainly Muslim, it has 18 officially recognized religious groups — including 12 Christian denominations. The largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East per capita is found in Lebanon’s population of 6 million, including some 2 million Syrian refugees.
The Maronite Catholic Church is the largest and most powerful Christian denomination in Lebanon. By convention, the country’s president is always a Maronite.
“Pope Leo is coming as a pilgrim of peace to Lebanon. The motto for his visit is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in (the Gospel of) Matthew 5:9: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,'” said Father Younes.
“He is sending a message that even in the midst of diversity of religious communities we can be unified as one people to witness to this conviviality,” Father Younes said.
While the official papal program is not yet set, he said that Pope Leo will certainly meet with the youth, Catholic clergy, religious as well as government officials.
“He wants to celebrate Mass in Beirut,” said Father Younes. “It is expected that he will meet all of Lebanon’s religious leaders in Beirut’s central Martyrs’ Square. It’s wonderful!”
“We hope to have the same impact of Pope John Paul II’s visit and more,” Bishop Essayan said.
“Someone told me at the time that Christians have this one man who speaks of peace everywhere. We don’t find someone similar in any other religion,” the Lebanese man told him of the power of the papal message.
“This is something we do appreciate because from the beginning of Pope Leo’s mandate, he said: ‘It is time for peace.’ And for us here, it is certainly time for peace,” Bishop Essayan said.
