Pope Leo XIV departed Lebanon on Tuesday after an emotional day that began with a visit to the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and Mass attended by over 150,000 people — and concluded with an event in which the Catholic leader heard the testimonies of the nation’s youth, encouraging them to retain hope.
Pope Leo began his first international tour as the archbishop of Rome in late November, first visiting Istanbul, Turkey, to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and then traveling to Lebanon for engagements with that country’s large Christian population, estimated at roughly 40 percent, the vast majority being Maronite Catholics. These numbers make Lebanon home to one of the largest Christian communities — and the largest by overall percentage of their country’s population — in the Middle East.
During his various engagements in Lebanon, including remarks to the leadership of the country in addition to his events on Tuesday, the pope emphasized the important role that Lebanon’s youth have to play in the revitalization of the country, ravaged by poverty and surrounded by war.
At the Beirut waterfront, Pope Leo emphasized the need to find common ground in a nation with significant religious and ethnic diversity, home to large numbers of Christians as well as Shiite and Sunni Muslims. The Lebanese constitution requires the president of the country to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister to be a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the federal legislature to be a Shiite Muslim.
“Everyone must do their part, and we must unite our efforts so that this land can return to its former glory. Disarming our hearts is the only way to do this,” the pope urged during his Mass. “Let us cast off the armor of our ethnic and political divisions, open our religious confessions to mutual encounter and reawaken in our hearts the dream of a united Lebanon.”
On Monday night, Pope Leo attended a prayer gathering of Lebanon’s Christian youth in front of the residence of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch in Bkerké, the historic spiritual center of the Maronite Church located in Mount Lebanon, which is the heart of Lebanon’s Christian identity. The pope’s message to Lebanon’s youth centered on encouraging them not to abandon Lebanon via emigration but to stay and work to build a peaceful and stable country.
The young attendees offered the pontiff gifts representing the suffering Lebanon has endured in the last few years — from the Beirut port explosion to the financial crisis and last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah. The gifts included shoots of wheat that sprang up from the port of Beirut after the devastating explosion there five years ago; a stone from the 150-year-old church of St. Georges in Yaroun that was destroyed by the Israelis in the war last year; a firefighter’s lantern and civil defense uniform from one of the workers who died in the Beirut port explosion; a Lebanese passport and soil to represent the young people who emigrated and those who committed suicide in despair; and a potted cedar of Lebanon tree — the symbol of their country and iconic as the prized material used to build the Phoenician ships and the beams of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem — to represent Lebanon’s large ex-pat community abroad who still remain spiritually “planted” in their native land.
The speakers addressing the pope repeatedly affirmed their wish to remain in Lebanon despite the dire state of affairs in the country, the product in part of decades of corruption and poor management, the malign influence of the jihadists of Hezbollah, and ongoing conflict with Israel in the south of the country.
One speaker declared firmly, “We refuse to abandon our Church, our people, and our land.” Another young man described his decision to stay in Lebanon as “a matter of responsibility, loyalty, and commitment to my people.”
A young Lebanese Christian woman described the friendship she formed with a young Lebanese Shia woman and how her Christian family sheltered her friend’s Shia family when their home was destroyed in southern Lebanon during last year’s war. Her friend’s Shia mother then also spoke and received large applause from the predominantly Christian audience when she said that from her experience with this Christian family, “I learned that religion is not spoken but lived in a love that crosses every boundary.”
Speaking to those gathered, Pope Leo used the cedar tree as a metaphor for the strength of the religious and cultural roots of the Lebanese people.
“Your homeland, Lebanon, will flourish once again, beautiful and vigorous like the cedar, a symbol of the people’s unity and fruitfulness,” he predicted. “You know well that the strength of the cedar lies in its roots, which are usually the same size as its branches. The number and strength of the branches correspond to the number and strength of its roots.”
“In the same way, the many good things we see in Lebanese society today are the result of the humble, hidden and honest work of so many people of good will,” he continued, “of the many good roots, who do not wish to make merely one branch of the Lebanese cedar grow, but the entire tree, in all its beauty.”
“Draw from the good roots of those dedicated to serving society without using it for their own interests,” the pontiff advised. “With a generous commitment to justice, plan together for a future of peace and development. Be the source of hope that the country is waiting for!”
“Dear young people, perhaps you regret inheriting a world torn apart by wars and disfigured by social injustice,” he noted. “Yet there is hope, and there is hope within you! You have a gift that many times we adults seem to have lost. You have hope! You have time! You have more time to dream, to plan and to do good.”
“Drawing on the strength you receive from Christ, build a better world than the one you inherited!” he urged, offering “the support of the whole Church in the decisive challenges in your lives and in the history of your beloved country.”