BEIRUT — Pope Leo XIV challenged Lebanon’s political leaders on Sunday to be true peacemakers and put their differences aside, as he sought to give Lebanon’s long-suffering people a message of hope and bolster a crucial Christian community in the Middle East.
Leo arrived in Beirut from Istanbul on the second leg of his maiden voyage as pope. He came to encourage the Lebanese people to persevere at a precarious moment for the small Mediterranean country as it faces economic uncertainty, deep political divisions and fears of a new war with Israel.
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 many 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, which killed more than 200 people and did billions of dollars in damage.
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.
Earlier on Sunday, the pope wrapped up the first leg of his Middle Eastern trip in Turkey with prayers at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Istanbul — a gesture of support for Christian unity and Christian minorities in the Muslim-majority country.
Beyond its ecumenical symbolism, the visit signals quiet support of ongoing efforts to heal century-old wounds between Turkey and Armenia, long scarred by mass killings and decades of mistrust.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely view the event as genocide.
In Lebanon, Leo was seeking to encourage 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 as families have moved abroad for safety and better lives.
Aoun, Lebanon’s Maronite Christian president, vowed that Christians will remain.
“Lebanon is a homeland of freedom for every human being,” Aoun said. “Your Holiness, tell the world that we will not die. We will not leave, we will not despair, and we will not surrender.
