Pope Leo XIV's first foreign trip is over. A six-day pilgrimage to the Middle East wrapped up Tuesday in Beirut.
We were in conflict-torn Lebanon just a few miles from the country's Ground Zero, where on Aug. 4, 2020, a deadly blast in Beirut's port killed over 200, injured thousands and left over 300,000 homeless.
Five years on, the Lebanese government has not concluded its investigation into how the nearly three tons of ammonium nitrate being stored in the port combusted, resulting in the largest non-nuclear explosion ever. Every fourth of the month, the families of victims go to the port to protest the government for its inaction and corruption.
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Pope Leo paid homage at the port with a silent prayer and lit a lamp in the victim's memory.
Earlier in the day, Vatican press officer Salvatore Scolozzi was in the marble hallway of Beirut's Intercontinental Phoenicia Hotel doing roll call for the 80 journalists accredited.
All the windows of this luxury hotel were shattered during the 2020 explosion, injuring staff and guests and destroying all the furniture. "All the air seemed to be sucked out of the building and there was glass flying and dust everywhere," a staff member told me, adding that there were no fatalities. After extensive repairs, the hotel reopened in 2023 but is still surrounded by skeletal burned-out buildings.
In the lobby, Salvatore warns, "Non fare ritardi VAMPS, don't be late." He and his staff have worked for over a year putting together this six-day tour de force pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon, originally planned for the late Pope Francis.
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We are known collectively as the VAMPS, the Vatican Accredited Media Personnel, and on this trip we hail from 15 different countries. After our 5:30 a.m. check-in for our return flight to Rome, the lobby chatter is focused on what we should ask the new pontiff on the much-anticipated in-flight press conference en route to Rome.
Normally each language group comes up with a question for the presser, and debate can get heated. "He will never go there," was the comment after one colleague suggested we ask if the Pope's frequent references to the important role of women during the trip indicated he would be open to women deacons.
Initially, there was concern that Pope Leo might not speak with journalists at all on board.
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But we were relieved when the curtain opened on our chartered Airbus flight from Istanbul to Beirut and a rather bashful-looking Pope Leo took thorny questions such as the conflict in Gaza, confirming the Vatican's years-long support of a two-state solution, but insisting, "Israel is our friend."
Pope Leo does not want to polarize, he is measured and diplomatic, and, six months into his papacy, appears to be gaining confidence and making his speeches punchier. He kept to the script in his native English and, in Lebanon, also spoke in excellent French and said a few words of Arabic as he pressed the need for peace between local authorities, different religious groups and the country's youth.
At Monday's evening celebration with young people, a Christian type of Woodstock, he saluted the Lebanese who had not emigrated, and those who had returned. "Have hope, don't leave, your country needs you!"
Nada Merhi, a local Catholic Maronite volunteer who was only five when the civil war of 1975-1990 shattered her family's lives, spoke of her love for her country and how she would never leave despite the economic and political crisis and the renewed violence following the Iran-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah’s attack on Israel a few weeks after Hamas’s massacre in Israel on Oct. 6, 2023.
"We need concrete help, but above all we just want peace. I hope the Pope will not forget about us."
Andre Sassine, a small-business owner from Byblos, a coastal city about 20 miles north of Beirut, is optimistic. "Business will be good if we just have peace. The Muslims in Lebanon are not the problem, don't believe the media, the problem is with external countries influencing and corrupting," he said, adding that he thought President Trump, whose daughter Tiffany married a Lebanese, could join forces with the pontiff.
"We Lebanese love America," he said, "and we love this new pope born in America. Please help us find peace."
