ANNAYA, Lebanon (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Monday at the tomb of a Lebanese saint revered among Christians and Muslims as he opened his first full day in Lebanon with a message of peace and religious coexistence in a conflict-torn region.
As the bells tolled, thousands of enthusiastic Lebanese braved a morning of steady rain to line Leo’s route, which headed for Annaya, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Beirut. Some waved Lebanese and Vatican flags and threw flower petals and rice on his covered papal mobile in a gesture of welcome as he drove by.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the monastery on Saint Maroun Hill, overlooking the sea, to pray at the tomb of Saint Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese Maronite hermit who lived between 1828 and 1898. He is known for alleged miraculous healings that occurred after the intercession of his people.
The lion prayed quietly in the dark tomb and offered a lamp as a gift of light for the monastery.
“Sisters and brothers, today we entrust to the intercession of Saint Charbel the needs of the church, Lebanon and the world,” Leo said in French. “For the world, we ask for peace. We beg for it especially for Lebanon and the entire Levant.”
Leo’s visit to the tomb, the first by a pope, opened a busy day for the first American pope in history. He is due to meet Catholic priests and nuns at a shrine in Harissa and then chair an interfaith gathering alongside Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim leaders in the capital Beirut.
A message of peace in a time of turmoil
There, Leo was expected to 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 recent years. His visit comes at a weak time for the small Mediterranean country, after years of economic crises and political gridlock, punctuated by the Beirut port explosion in 2020.
More recently, Lebanon has been deeply divided over demands 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.
The lion traveled around Lebanon in a closed papal mobile, in contrast to the previous Pope Francis, who avoided bulletproof papal mobiles throughout his 12-year pontificate. Lebanese troops were deployed on both sides of the road along his caravan route.
Leo was to end the day at a rally for Lebanese youth in Bkerki, the headquarters of the Maronite church, where he is expected to encourage them to persevere and not leave the country like many others, despite Lebanon’s many challenges.
A plea for Christians to stay
Leo arrived in Lebanon on Sunday from Turkey, where he opened his first trip as pope. He is set to conclude his visit on Tuesday with a prayer at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and a waterfront mass.
In his opening speech, Leo challenged Lebanon’s political leaders to put aside their differences and work to be true peacemakers, while urging Lebanese Christians in particular to stay in the country.
Today, Christians make up about a third of Lebanon’s 5 million people, giving the tiny nation on the eastern Mediterranean coast the highest percentage of Christians in the Middle East.
A power-sharing agreement in place since independence from France requires the president to be a Maronite Christian, making Lebanon the only Arab country with a Christian head of state.
Lebanon’s Christian community has held on in its ancestral homeland, even as the rise of Islamic State prompted an exodus from communities in Iraq and Syria that date back to the time of the Apostles.
“We’ll stay here,” said May Noon, a pilgrim waiting for Leo outside St. Charbel Monastery. “No one can tear us from this country, we must live in it as brothers because the church has no enemy.”
Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay accompanied a group of 60 people from the Lebanese diaspora in Australia to welcome 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 have to support young people and families to stay here,” he said as he waited for the pope to meet with clergy in Harissa, north of Beirut. “We don’t like to see more and more people leaving Lebanon, especially Christians.”
Tarabay said the Lebanese are grateful that Leo chose to visit on his maiden trip as pope.
“He decided to say that there we have people who are suffering, we have young people who look very much on the verge of despair,” he said. The lion, he said, decided, “I have to go out there and tell them, ‘You are not forgotten.’
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Winfield and Chehayab contributed from Beirut; Abbey Sewell contributed from Harissa.
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