Pope Leo XIV prayed at the tomb of a saint revered by both Christians and Muslims during a visit to Lebanon today, bringing a message of peace, hope and religious coexistence to a region torn apart by conflict.
Thousands of Lebanese stood along the road that the pope's motorcade took to Anaia, 40 kilometers from Beirut, waving Lebanese and Vatican flags and throwing flower petals and rice as a sign of welcome.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the Monastery of Saint Maroun to pray at the tomb of Saint Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese Maronite hermit who lived from 1828 to 1898.
Believers attribute miraculous healings to him, which occurred after praying for his intervention.
The lion prayed silently in the dark tomb and offered a lamp as a gift of light for the monastery.
"Sisters and brothers, today we entrust the needs of the church, Lebanon and the world to the intervention of Saint Charbel. For the world, we pray for peace. We implore him especially for Lebanon and for the entire Levant," the pope said in French.
A visit to the tomb, the first time a pope has visited it, was Pope Leo's first activity today.
He was welcomed by nuns and priests at the shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, a town north of Beirut.
There, Leo called on the clergy to offer hope to their flock, especially to the youth.
"It is necessary, even among the ruins of a world with painful failures, to offer them concrete and viable prospects for rebirth and future growth," the pope said to ovations and shouts of "Viva il Papa" (Long live the Pope).
The Pope is scheduled to lead an interfaith gathering with Lebanese Christian and Muslim leaders in Beirut this afternoon.
The Lion is then expected to strongly deliver his core message of peace and Christian-Muslim coexistence in Lebanon and beyond, at a time of conflict in Gaza and political tensions in Lebanon that are worse than they have been in years.
The Pope's visit comes at a time of uncertainty for Lebanon, which has been suffering from economic crisis and political blockades for years, and the country was also marked by the explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020.
"We, as Lebanese, need this visit after all the wars, crises and despair we have experienced," said the secretary general of Catholic schools in Lebanon, Youssef Nasr, who was present to welcome the pope at the Basilica of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, a town north of Beirut.
"The Pope's visit gives new impetus to the Lebanese to rise up and hold on to their country," Nasr said.
More recently, Lebanon has been deeply divided over calls for the Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah to disarm, following a war with Israel last year that left Lebanon in a bad state.
Pope Leo moved through Lebanon in a closed popemobile, unlike his predecessor, Pope Francis, who avoided an armored car during his 12-year pontificate.
Lebanese troops were deployed on both sides of the road along the route of the motorcade carrying the pope.
Pope Leo is expected to conclude his activities at a gathering for Lebanese youth in Bkerki, the seat of the Maronite Church, where he is expected to encourage them to persevere and not leave the country, like so many others, despite the numerous difficulties in Lebanon.
He arrived in Lebanon yesterday from Turkey, where he began his first trip as pope.
On Saturday, during a four-day visit to Turkey, the Pope, together with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, signed a Joint Declaration in the Patriarchal Church of Saint George in Istanbul, which affirms the path to the restoration of Christian communion and rejects "any" use of religion and the "name of God" to justify violence.
In his opening speech upon his arrival in Lebanon, Pope Leo called on political leaders to put aside differences and work to be true peacemakers, while also urging Lebanese Christians in particular to remain in the country.
Today, Christians make up about a third of Lebanon's five million people, giving the small nation on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean the highest percentage of Christians in the Middle East.
The power-sharing agreement in place since independence from France stipulates that the president be a Maronite Christian, making Lebanon the only Arab country with a Christian head of state.
The Lebanese Christian community has survived even as the rise of the Islamic State has led to an exodus from communities in Iraq and Syria, which date back to apostolic times.
While the Christian exodus in Lebanon has been slower since the civil war, emigration remains a point of concern for the Vatican, which sees the Christian presence here as a bulwark for the church in the region.
"We will stay here. No one can uproot us from this land, we must live in it as brothers because the church has no enemies," said May Nun, a pilgrim who was waiting for the pope in front of the Saint Charbel Monastery.
Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabey came with a group of 60 members of the Lebanese diaspora in Australia to welcome Pope Leo and join his prayer for peace, but also to strengthen the Christian presence in the country.
"Even though we live abroad, we feel we need to support young people and families to stay there," he said.
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