Capping off symbolic three-day visit, the Pontiff urged Lebanese unity and the pursuit of peace and justice.
Pope Leo XIV has offered prayers at the site of the 2020 Beirut port blast, one of the final stops in his three-day visit to Lebanon.
The Catholic leader prayed silently and lit a lamp on Tuesday morning at a monument to the more than 220 people that were killed and 6,500 injured in the explosion. The United States-born pontiff has urged peaceful coexistence across the Middle East during his inaugural trip abroad.
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With mounds of rubble and the remains of the devastated facility within sight, the Pontiff shook hands, blessed and spoke with each one of the survivors and relatives of victims who were present.
“We are very grateful for this visit from the Pope,” said Cecile Roukoz, a lawyer whose brother died in the explosion. “We know that he raises his voice” for justice “and we need justice for our brothers and all the victims of this explosion”.
Reporting from Beirut’s waterfront, where Leo later held Mass, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said many Lebanese people see his outreach at the blast site as a powerful gesture.
“For the Pope to speak to the family members one by one … it really meant a lot,” she said.
Victims and families of those killed are still seeking justice five years after the blast, which caused billions of dollars in damage as it tore through neighbourhoods.
No official has been convicted in a judicial investigation that has been repeatedly obstructed, angering Lebanese for whom the blast was just the latest evidence of impunity after decades of corruption and financial crimes.
When Leo arrived in Lebanon on Sunday, he had urged the country’s political leaders to pursue the truth as a means of peace and reconciliation.
‘Cast off ethnic and political divisions’
Tens of thousands later congregated at Beirut’s waterfront for the Pope’s Mass, capping off his three-day visit to the country.
“We must unite our efforts so that this land can return to its glory,” he declared, urging Lebanon’s people to “cast off the armour of our ethnic and political divisions”.
He said he envisioned “a Lebanon where peace and justice reign, where all recognise each other as brothers and sisters”.
The Vatican’s press service, citing the Lebanese authorities, said some 150,000 people had attended the outdoor ceremony.
That means that the turnout was markedly smaller than the roughly 300,000 who attended Pope Benedict XVI’s 2012 waterfront Mass during the last papal visit to Lebanon.
The discrepancy speaks to the mass exodus of Lebanese, including Christians, in recent years, spurred by mounting economic and political turmoil, including deep sectarian strife, said Khodr.
“Since Pope Benedict XVI was here … it has been crisis after crisis for the country: Economic collapse, people losing their savings and then the port explosion,” said Khodr.
“And now the continuing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Really, the list goes on. When you speak to people here, they say life is difficult and we are struggling, but we appreciate the Pope’s presence.”
Leo’s visit to Lebanon was the second leg of an overseas trip that started in Turkiye, in which he pleaded for peace in the Middle East and warned that humanity’s future is at risk from the world’s bloody conflicts.
