Pope Leo delivers peace message in Beirut

Pontiff wraps up trip with Mass and a call on people in Mideast to set aside divisions.

- NABIH BULOS

POPE LEO XIV waves to the crowd at the Mass in Beirut on the final day of his first trip abroad as pontiff.

(CHRIS MCGRATH Getty Images)

With a rainbow adorning the early morning sky, tens of thousands converged Tuesday on Beirut’s waterfront to attend public prayers led by Pope Leo XIV — the culmination of an international debut that saw the U.S.-born pontiff repeatedly call for peace in a time of increasing war.

Addressing a crowd of an estimated 150,000 people — including much of Lebanon’s political class — Leo described himself as “a pilgrim of hope to the Middle East.” He implored “God for the gift of peace for this beloved land marked by instability, wars and suffering.”

It was a message with deep resonance here in Lebanon, a country that has seen more than its fair share of all three in recent years.

In 2019, its economy collapsed, devaluing the currency by more than 98% and all but wiping out most people’s savings.

A year later, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in the Beirut port exploded, killing hundreds and ravaging wide swaths of the Lebanese capital. The disaster, blamed on gross negligence at all levels of government, became emblematic of the endemic corruption in Lebanon but has yet to see a single official indicted.

Then came the war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah in 2023. A ceasefire brokered by the U.S. in November 2024 was supposed to end hostilities, but more than a year later, Israel is still occupying parts of southern Lebanon and has conducted near-daily airstrikes — measures it says are vital to thwart Hezbollah’s attempts at rebuilding. (A week before Leo arrived, Israeli warplanes hit an apartment in Beirut’s suburbs, assassinating Hezbollah’s top military commander.)