Over 150,000 people joined Pope Leo as he celebrated Mass on the Beirut Waterfront, the concluding event of his visit to Lebanon. It was a deeply moving experience.
At the Mass, the Pope reaffirmed his powerful message of peace, one of the primary reasons why he visited the Middle East for his first apostolic journey.
POPE LEO XIV
Let us disarm our hearts, let us cast down the armor of our ethnic and political intolerance, let us open our religious confessions to mutual encounter, let us awaken deep within ourselves the dream of a united Lebanon, where peace and justice prevail.
As the Jubilee Year draws to a close, Pope Leo also recalled the motto of the Jubilee we are currently celebrating: hope must prevail over conflict, war, pain, and suffering.
POPE LEO XIV
The Word of the Lord invites us to find the small lights that shine in the heart of the night, to open ourselves to gratitude and to encourage us to commit together in favor of this land.
Pope Leo XIV concluded his first apostolic journey, thanking the people of Lebanon for their warm welcome and for the shared experiences of the last few days. He encouraged them to be the bearers of peace in the Middle East.
POPE LEO XIV
Lebanon, rise up! Be a house of justice and fraternity! Be a prophecy of peace for the entire Levant!
These were the historic last words of the pontiff at the end of his first apostolic journey.
The motto of this journey was “Blessed are the peace makers”—the words written on every corner of the main avenues of the city of Beirut.
