by Pascale Rizk
Beirut – Just as the country awaited John Paul II in 1997 and Benedict XVI in 2012, the Land of Cedars is now looking forward to the imminent arrival of Pope Leo XVI, who is expected on November 30th for his first apostolic visit as Pope. The first stop of his trip will be Turkey, where he will make a pilgrimage to Iznik on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. The visit of a Successor of Peter had been expected since 2021, when Pope Francis, in response to a question from Imad Abdul Karim Atrach of Sky News Arabia, revealed the promise he had made to Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Raï to visit Lebanon. Five months into his pontificate, Pope Leo is now traveling to the country at a crucial time, following an invitation from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun during an audience on June 13, 2025.
The news of the papal visit was received with joy and enthusiasm and is seen as a sign of the Pope’s closeness to the entire country at this crucial time in its history. For the Lebanese, this first apostolic journey of Pope Leo is of enormous significance. The small country, with an area of 10,452 km², constantly plagued by unrest and suffering from “depopulation” due to emigration, plays a special historical, cultural, literary, artistic, and social role in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
A kaleidoscope of coexistence between different cultures, with its Christian and Muslim components, despite all its problems and setbacks, it continues to represent a “unique model of coexistence,” “unique and indispensable for the region and the entire world,” as the President of the Lebanese Republic said in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September, adding that “saving” Lebanon is “a fundamental duty of humanity.” “Lebanon is a message. Lebanon is suffering. Lebanon is about more than maintaining an equilibrium. It has the weakness of differences, some of which are still not reconciled. But it has the strength of great reconciled people, like the strength of cedars […] But at this time Lebanon is in crisis, but in crisis – here I wish not to offend – in a crisis of life,” Pope Francis said at a press conference on his return from Iraq. It is the suffering in the face of this existential crisis that many Lebanese wish to share with Pope Leo, seeking his support in this phase of the “Lebanese awakening,” while President Joseph Aoun promises to build an efficient country and affirms that “to save it, one must simply commit decisively, in words and deeds, to liberating it from occupation and guaranteeing the exclusive sovereignty of the Lebanese state over its entire territory, exclusively through its legal and legitimate armed forces.”
“Lebanon is at a crossroads: either it develops into a country that promotes citizenship and good governance, or it remains stuck in a deadly impasse. Christians in Lebanon are not a minority, and Lebanon remains today an oasis of freedom of expression,” Father Raphael Zgheib, professor at the Saint Joseph University in Beirut and member of the ecumenical reflection group “We Choose Life,” told Fides. “For the Lebanese, the Pope’s visit comes at a time of collective exhaustion. Lebanon is trying to free itself from the abyss. It is necessary to renew John Paul II’s call to ‘lead this country to a path of prayer, penance, and conversion’ that will enable Lebanese Christians to ‘ask themselves before the Lord if they are faithful to the Gospel and truly committed to following Christ,’ as stated in his Apostolic Exhortation ‘A New Hope for Lebanon.’ In order to ‘build together the Body of Christ in the true spirit of the Church.'”
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