AMMAN, Jordan (OSV News) -- Lebanese Catholics yearn for the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV to achieve something lost in recent years. Signs bearing the pontiff's photo along newly rebuilt roadways express their longing: "Lebanon wants peace."
Indeed, Pope Leo comes as pilgrim of peace, with the motto for his visit to Lebanon taken from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'"
Pope Leo's choice making Lebanon his first pastoral visit after marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in Turkey -- underscores the importance the Vatican places on its influential Catholic community in the Middle East, Catholic leaders said of the Nov. 30-Dec. 2 papal trip.
But they added the pontiff also recognizes the need to undergird its Christian community as war, economic crisis and deadly disasters have taken a huge toll on the tiny Mediterranean country recently.
"This is a critical moment for Christians in all the Middle East; not only Lebanon," said Michel Constantin, who is Catholic Near East Welfare Association-Pontifical Mission's regional director for Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.
"Lebanon is still the only place in the region where Christians have a substantial presence in politics, governance, and economics. The president and army chief are Catholic, while Christians have a big say in the judicial system. Although they have lost a lot and they are still losing," he told OSV News.
The Maronite Catholic Church is the largest and most powerful Christian denomination in Lebanon. By convention, the country's president is always a Maronite.
"While the Maronite community is prominent in Lebanon and it has contributed to the country since 1920 until now, the pope is coming to visit the Catholic family together, a visit for the whole church," Father Jean Younes, secretary general of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon, told OSV News.
Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, often speaks the sentiments of ordinary Lebanese. "The church is suffering alongside the Lebanese people," he said.
Considered the most influential Christian spiritual leader in Lebanon, Cardinal Rai has repeatedly underscored the need for Lebanon's unity and neutrality, calling on politicians to keep the tiny Mediterranean country out of regional conflicts. He hopes the papal visit "will remind all Lebanese, Christians and Muslims alike, of their responsibility to preserve Lebanon."
Other prominent Catholics in Lebanon include the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, and the Chaldean Catholic Church. While these communities possess their own liturgical traditions, histories, and cultural heritage, they are all in full communion with Rome.
The largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East per capita is also found in Lebanon's population of 6 million, including some 2 million Syrian refugees.
However, Christians continue to leave the region of Christianity's spiritual birthplace due to conflict and instability. It's believed that Christians made up around 20% of the Middle East's population a century ago compared to 5% today.
Lebanon's ambassador to the Holy See, Fadi Assaf, called the papal visit "exceptional" as it would "highlight the difficulties facing Lebanon," which is hoping for a "political and economic breakthrough." Although, the Lebanese "know full well that (this visit) will not solve all their problems," he said, as reported by France24.
Despite the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, Israel continues to carry out near-daily attacks in Lebanon, seeking to further weaken the militant group that pledged to support Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023, conflict.
Lebanon's president has committed to disarming Hezbollah, the only militia that has kept its weapons since the country's 1975-1990 civil war. The latest Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah's chief of staff, Haytham Tabatabai, along with five others, in a Beirut strike on Nov. 23.
Ongoing Israeli attacks worry Catholics and other Lebanese that such airstrikes could be a precursor to a full-scale war. Such attacks have also affected Christians in southern Lebanon, some still displaced by the Gaza war.
"We hope the pope's visit to Lebanon will be a message to put a limit to these wars," Hanna Amil, mayor of the southern town of Rmeich, told Reuters ahead of the papal visit.
"Christians need encouragement. Hezbollah and its military presence and war with Israel have made it very difficult for Christians to stay in Lebanon and build a future," said CNEWA's Constantin.
"We believe the pope will fortify the local church and inject a new strategy," he said. "Our church institutions such as schools, universities, hospitals are the cornerstones for education and health in the country," serving all Lebanese, he said.
"They are suffering a lot due to the economic crisis. We need a new way of thinking to sustain and continue our presence," Constantin said.
Still, Bishop Cesar Essayan, the apostolic vicar of Beirut, remains hopeful that papal visit can effect some change. "We are looking forward to this visit. All the Lebanese people are preparing ourselves to receive the pope with great joy," he told OSV News.
