Pope John Paul II, accompanied by Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, during a walkabout in Beirut on May 10, 1997. (Archive photo: L'Orient-Le Jour)
Pope Leo XIV, expected in Lebanon from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, will be the fourth pope to set foot in Lebanon, in a trip that comes 13 years since the last: Pope Benedict XVI’s September 2012 visit.To date, it was John Paul II's 32-hour-long visit to Lebanon in May 1997 that left the deepest mark on the Lebanese collective memory and an episode largely forgotten is when Pope Paul VI, the first head of the Catholic Church to visit Lebanon, made a brief stop at Beirut Airport in 1964. As for Pope Francis, Leo XIV’s predecessor, who passed away on April 21, 2025, he had repeatedly expressed his desire to make the trip, but health issues prevented him from doing so.Leo XIV’s visit to Lebanon comes as Israel continues to bomb Lebanon, despite a cease-fire reached last year. The three previous papal visits also took place in tense political...
Pope Leo XIV, expected in Lebanon from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, will be the fourth pope to set foot in Lebanon, in a trip that comes 13 years since the last: Pope Benedict XVI’s September 2012 visit.To date, it was John Paul II's 32-hour-long visit to Lebanon in May 1997 that left the deepest mark on the Lebanese collective memory and an episode largely forgotten is when Pope Paul VI, the first head of the Catholic Church to visit Lebanon, made a brief stop at Beirut Airport in 1964. As for Pope Francis, Leo XIV’s predecessor, who passed away on April 21, 2025, he had repeatedly expressed his desire to make the trip, but health issues prevented him from doing so.Leo XIV’s visit to Lebanon comes as Israel continues to bomb Lebanon, despite a cease-fire reached last year. The three previous papal visits also took place in tense...