A sign on the road to Beirut airport: "Lebanon wants peace... The Pope of peace." (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
With Pope Leo XIV set to land in Lebanon on Sunday for a three-day visit, preparations across the country are in full swing.Vatican flags and papal portraits line the Nahr al-Kalb highway that leads to several majority-Christian villages in the north. In downtown Beirut, preparations for Tuesday’s grand mass are taking shape.On the streets of the capital, reactions are mixed, with people from different communities projecting their own expectations, hopes or reservations onto the historic event. The view from above Ahead of Pope Leo XIV's arrival to Lebanon, political leaders call for 'unity' amid fears of escalation "Last year, only my faith kept me going," says Marie-Belle Abbas, a Maronite from Jezzine, a region in the south regularly bombed by Israel during last year's war. "This visit is the only positive...
With Pope Leo XIV set to land in Lebanon on Sunday for a three-day visit, preparations across the country are in full swing.Vatican flags and papal portraits line the Nahr al-Kalb highway that leads to several majority-Christian villages in the north. In downtown Beirut, preparations for Tuesday’s grand mass are taking shape.On the streets of the capital, reactions are mixed, with people from different communities projecting their own expectations, hopes or reservations onto the historic event. The view from above Ahead of Pope Leo XIV's arrival to Lebanon, political leaders call for 'unity' amid fears of escalation "Last year, only my faith kept me going," says Marie-Belle Abbas, a Maronite from Jezzine, a region in the south regularly bombed by Israel during last year's war. "This visit is the only positive...
