Pope Francis kissing a Lebanese flag. (Credit: Vatican website.)
Unlike his predecessors, Pope Francis never had the opportunity to visit Lebanon before his death, which the Vatican announced Monday. But throughout his papacy, he showed particular care for the Lebanese people.
The head of the Catholic Church had repeatedly expressed his desire to visit Beirut — still marked by the visits of Benedict XVI in 2012 and John Paul II in 1997 — once “conditions were met.” However, recurring health issues repeatedly delayed a possible trip to the Land of the Cedars. Even from afar, Francis left an impression on many Lebanese through his appeals to the country’s leaders and his solidarity with a “nation weakened by multiple crises,” as he once described it.
Francis gave Lebanon a prominent place early in his papacy. For the first Way of the Cross in 2013, he entrusted the meditations to a group of young Lebanese under the direction of Cardinal Beshara Rai. That same year, he prayed for Lebanon, calling it “a land of tolerance and an example of pluralism for the East and the world.” He hoped it would find “the desired stability” and continue to be “a model for coexistence and peace.”
Those remarks came amid deep political tensions — Prime Minister Najib Mikati had just resigned, talks to form Tammam Salam’s Cabinet were stalling, Hezbollah was increasingly involved in Syria’s Civil War, and Lebanon was absorbing waves of Syrian refugees amid a spate of jihadist attacks.
Fears for Lebanon’s Christians
As Lebanon plunged deeper into crisis after 2019, the pope’s messages became more frequent. Following the massive port explosion in Beirut on Aug. 4, 2020 — which killed at least 235 people and wounded 7,000 — Francis called for a global day of prayer and fasting. He warned that the country was facing “extreme danger” and could not be “left to solitude.” Four years later, he again urged justice for the victims during a meeting with their families.
On the issue of Syrian refugees, he repeatedly praised the Lebanese for their generosity, despite the strain.
That year, tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia — both vying for influence in Lebanon — were at a high, with Riyadh cutting diplomatic ties over Hezbollah’s growing political dominance.
In March 2021, Francis lamented Lebanon’s “existential crisis due to unresolved differences,” saying the country was falling short of being the “model of coexistence” and “universal message of peace” it once was.
Later that year, in July, he denounced “unscrupulous profiteers” — both local and foreign — for blocking political progress. After hosting Lebanese religious leaders at the Vatican for a day of prayer, he blamed the political elite for exacerbating the crisis and declared that Lebanon “cannot be left at the mercy of those who pursue personal interests without scruples.” He urged the clergy to adopt a lifestyle rooted in “evangelical poverty, without luxury.”
A watchful eye on Lebanon’s woes
Recent developments also found a place in Francis’s prayers. During the Hezbollah-Israel war between September and November 2024, he condemned the “terrible escalation” as “unacceptable” and urged the international community to intervene to stop the violence.
Throughout his papacy, Francis witnessed two presidential vacancies — one following Michel Sleiman’s departure in 2014 and another ahead of Joseph Aoun’s election in 2025. On Jan. 7, just one day before the vote that ended the latest deadlock, he expressed hope that Lebanon would soon overcome the “institutional impasse that brings it to its knees.”
In his final message to the Lebanese, delivered April 13, 2025 — Palm Sunday and the 50th anniversary of the start of Lebanon’s Civil War — Francis, still recovering from double pneumonia, called for peace. He asked Catholics to “remember Lebanon, where the Civil War broke out 50 years ago, so that it can, with God’s help, live in peace and prosperity.”
