Lebanon eagerly awaits Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit, marking his first apostolic trip abroad, Catholic clergy organizers say.

“All the Lebanese people, the youth, the church, the government and Lebanon’s president are all very excited,” Father Jean Younes, secretary general of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon, told OSV News about the preparations.

While Pope Leo’s first trip abroad starts Nov. 27 in Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the beginnings of the Nicene Creed, recited by all mainline Christians, the Lebanon leg represents an entirely different facet.

‘Pastoral visit to see his people’

“He chose Lebanon as his first country to make an apostolic visit. He’s coming to Lebanon on a pastoral visit to see his people,” Father Younes said. “Big difference!”

“We have many committees, many commissions working hard to make a beautiful and fruitful visit for His Holiness to Lebanon,” he said of the Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 event. “All the Lebanese people are preparing themselves to receive Pope Leo with great joy.”

Catholic clergy in Lebanon welcome Pope Leo’s call for hope and peace for both their country and the wider Middle East, struggling from years of devastating conflict and destruction. They also see the visit undergirding support for Christians buffeted by regional events.

Lebanon seeks peace ‘and a new life’

Bishop César Essayan, apostolic vicar of Beirut, told OSV News that the pope comes to Lebanon to minister peace as the country is “sick from 50 years of war and is seeking peace and a new life. He comes to give us a message of hope and peace in this year of Jubilee,” he said.

In the years following the destructive civil war of 1975-1990, Lebanon has known little respite.

Catholic clergy point to the past six years as particularly brutal with widespread protests over government corruption in 2019; a punishing economic crisis; the devastating Beirut port explosion of 2020; and the recent war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which killed some 4,000 people and destroyed parts of Beirut, and the country’s south and east. 

Patriarch of Maronite Catholic Church

Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, has repeatedly urged politicians to keep Lebanon out of regional conflicts. Speaking to the French news agency AFP, Cardinal Rai said the papal visit “will remind all Lebanese, Christians and Muslims alike, of their responsibility to preserve Lebanon.” 

Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, Israel continues to carry out near-daily attacks in Lebanon.  

The church has ministered to Lebanese and refugees struggling to stay afloat. “This visit will give a boost to the local church to reorganize and restrategize as it has suffered from an organization and an economic resource crisis in recent years,” Michel Constatin, CNEWA Pontifical Mission‘s regional director for Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, told OSV News.

Known as the ‘Land of the Cedars’

And yet, this tiny Mediterranean country, known as the “Land of the Cedars” and mentioned in the Bible, has held a special place for the Holy See, as Pope Leo’s visit marks the third such papal visit following that of St. John Paul II (1997) and Benedict XVI (2012) which drew huge, enthusiastic throngs.

“Lebanon is a message, not only a country, as Pope John Paul II said in his apostolic exhortation in 1997. He wanted to show the world that in this small country that suffered a lot and has different religious communities, we can make it to live together in peace — hopefully,” said Father Younes.