Pope Leo XIV’s first trip abroad is over. A six-day pilgrimage to the Middle East ended in Beirut on Tuesday.
We were in conflict-torn Lebanon, just a few miles from Ground Zero, where on August 4, 2020, a deadly explosion at Beirut’s port killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and left more than 300,000 homeless.
Five years later, the Lebanese government has not completed its investigation into how the nearly three tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port resulted in the largest non-nuclear explosion ever. Every fourth of the month, the families of the victims go to the port to protest against the government for its inaction and corruption.
POPE LEO
Pope Leo (Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Pope Leo paid tribute in the harbor with a silent prayer and lit a lamp in memory of the victims.
Earlier in the day, Vatican press officer Salvatore Scolozzi was in the marble hallway of the Intercontinental Phenicia Hotel in Beirut, taking roll call for the 80 accredited journalists.
The 2020 explosion shattered all the windows of this luxury hotel, injuring staff and guests and destroying all furniture. “All the air seemed to be sucked out of the building and there was glass and dust flying everywhere,” an employee told me, adding that there had been no fatalities. After extensive repairs, the hotel reopened in 2023, but is still surrounded by skeletal burned-out buildings.
In the lobby, Scolozzi warns: “Non fare ritardi VAMPS, don’t be late.” He and his staff have worked for over a year to put together this six-day pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon, originally planned for the late Pope Francis.
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We are collectively known as the VAMPS, the Vatican Accredited Media Personnel, and on this trip we come from 15 different countries. After our 6:30 check-in for our return flight to Rome, the conversation in the lobby focuses on what to ask the new Pope at the much-anticipated in-flight press conference en route to Italy.
Normally, each language group comes up with a question for the press, and the debate can become heated. “He will never go there,” was the comment after a colleague suggested we ask whether the pope’s frequent references to the important role of women during the trip indicated he would be open to female deacons.
Initially, there was concern that Pope Leo might not speak to journalists on board at all.
POPE LEO
But we were relieved when the curtain rose on our chartered Airbus flight from Istanbul to Beirut and a rather shy-looking Pope Leo answered thorny questions such as the Gaza conflict, reaffirming the Vatican’s long-standing support for a two-state solution but insisting: “Israel is our friend.”
Pope Leo does not want to polarize, he is measured and diplomatic, and now that he has been Pope for six months, he seems to be gaining more confidence and spicing up his speeches. He stuck to the script in his native English and in Lebanon he also spoke excellent French and said a few words of Arabic as he stressed the need for peace between local authorities, various religious groups and the country’s youth.
During the Monday evening celebration with young people, a Christian type from Woodstock, he greeted the Lebanese who had not emigrated and those who had returned. “Have hope, don’t leave, your country needs you!”
Pope Leo (Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Nada Merhi, a local Catholic Maronite volunteer who was just five when the 1975-1990 civil war devastated her family’s lives, spoke of her love for her country. She said she would never leave, despite the economic and political crisis and renewed violence following the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah’s attack on Israel a few weeks after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
“We need concrete help, but above all we just want peace. I hope the Pope will not forget us.”
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Andre Sassine, a small business owner from Byblos, a coastal city about 20 miles north of Beirut, is optimistic. “Things will be good if we just have peace. The Muslims in Lebanon are not the problem, don’t believe the media, the problem is that external countries are influencing and corrupting,” he said, adding that he thought President Donald Trump, whose daughter Tiffany married a man of Lebanese descent, could join forces with the pope.
“We Lebanese love America,” he said, “and we love this new Pope who was born in America. Please help us find peace.”
