Lebanon eagerly awaits Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit, marking his first apostolic trip abroad, Catholic clergy organisers say. Source: OSV News.
“All the Lebanese people, the youth, the Church, the government and Lebanon’s president are all very excited,” Fr Jean Younes, secretary general of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon, said about the preparations.
While Pope Leo’s first trip abroad starts on November 27 in Türkiye to commemorate the 1700th 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,” Fr 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 November 30 to December 2 event. “All the Lebanese people are preparing themselves to receive Pope Leo with great joy.”
Catholic clergy in Lebanon have welcomed 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, said 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 4000 people and destroyed parts of Beirut, and the country’s south and east.
Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said the papal visit “will remind all Lebanese, Christians and Muslims alike, of their responsibility to preserve Lebanon.”
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Lebanon eagerly awaits Pope Leo’s visit as ‘pilgrim of peace,’ Catholic clergy say (By Dale Gavlak, OSV News)
