The presidential couple, Joseph and Neemat Aoun, alongside Pope Leo XIV, on Oct. 19, 2025 at the Vatican. (Credit: LBpresidency/X)
Expected at the end of November in Lebanon for an apostolic visit, Pope Leo XIV described this trip on Sunday, from the Vatican, as a "message of peace and hope."
His statement came in response to President Joseph Aoun, who assured him that the Lebanese people "await his visit with great impatience."
This exchange took place on the sidelines of the canonization ceremony of Bishop Ignatius Maloyan, which was attended the same day by the head of state and his wife, Neemat Aoun, at St. Peter's Square in the Holy See.
Maloyan, an Armenian Catholic bishop of Mardin in Turkey who was martyred during the Armenian genocide of 1915, spent the early years of his priesthood in Lebanon, at the Bzoummar Monastery in Kesrouan, where he had been sent at the age of 14.
The Holy Father will make an apostolic visit to Lebanon from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, after a trip to Turkey from Nov. 27 to 30 for the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, a major event in the history of Christianity. This will be his first trip abroad since his election on May 8.
In September, Vatican sources indicated that preparations for this trip to Lebanon were underway, without providing further details. This news generated enthusiasm among Christian faithful in Lebanon, especially as Pope Francis was unable to visit the Land of the Cedars.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, who also attended the canonization of seven new Catholic saints, including the Armenian archbishop, stated the day before that "Lebanon remains a land of peace and coexistence, as all demand."
