Pope Leo XIV arrives to instrumentality portion successful a Divine Liturgy astatine Patriarchal Church of Saint George, successful Istanbul connected Nov. 30, 2025.
Ozan Kose | Afp | Getty Images
Pope Leo travels to Lebanon connected Sunday, wherever helium is expected to entreaty for bid successful a state that is simply a continued people of Israeli aerial strikes, connected the 2nd and last limb of his first overseas trip as person of the Catholic Church.
The archetypal U.S. pope volition get from Turkey, wherever helium has been visiting for 4 days and warned that humanity's aboriginal was astatine risk because of the world's antithetic fig of bloody conflicts and condemned unit successful the sanction of religion.
Leo is owed to onshore astatine Beirut's Hariri International Airport astatine 3:45 p.m. (1345 GMT), up of meetings with the president and premier curate and an code to nationalist leaders, the pope's 2nd to a overseas government.
Lebanon, which has the largest stock of Christians successful the Middle East, has been rocked by the spillover of the Gaza conflict, as Israel and the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim militant radical Hezbollah went to war, culminating successful a devastating Israeli offensive.
Leaders successful Lebanon, which hosts 1 cardinal Syrian and Palestinian refugees and is besides struggling to retrieve from years of economical crisis, are disquieted Israel volition dramatically escalate its strikes successful coming months.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said connected Friday that helium hoped Leo's sojourn would assistance bring an extremity to Israeli attacks.
Lebanon's divers communities person besides welcomed the papal trip, with starring Druze cleric Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna saying Lebanon "needs the glimmer of anticipation represented by this visit".
Pope visiting 5 Lebanese cities and towns
Leo, a comparative unknown on the satellite signifier earlier becoming pope successful May, is being intimately watched arsenic helium makes his archetypal speeches overseas and interacts for the archetypal clip with radical extracurricular chiefly Catholic Italy.
On Saturday, Leo visited Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque, successful his archetypal sojourn arsenic pope to a Muslim spot of worship. He removed his shoes successful a motion of respect but did not commune astatine the mosque arsenic planned, which appeared to surprise Vatican officials.
The pope, 70 and successful bully health, has a crowded itinerary successful Lebanon, visiting 5 cities and towns from Sunday to Tuesday, erstwhile helium returns to Rome. Leo will not question to the south, the people of Israeli strikes.
His docket includes a supplication astatine the tract of a 2020 chemic explosion at the Beirut larboard that killed 200 radical and caused billions of dollars' worthy of damage.
He volition besides pb an outdoor Mass connected the Beirut waterfront and sojourn a psychiatric hospital, 1 of the fewer intelligence wellness facilities successful Lebanon, wherever carers and residents are eagerly anticipating his arrival.
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