Pope Leo taking peace message to Lebanon, target of Israeli strikes

Pope Leo travels to Lebanon on Sunday, where he is expected to appeal for peace in a country that is a continued target of Israeli air strikes, on the second and final leg of his first overseas trip as leader of the Catholic Church.

The first U.S. pope will arrive from Turkey, where he has been visiting for four days and warned that humanity’s future was at risk because of the world’s unusual number of bloody conflicts and condemned violence in the name of religion.

Leo is due to land at Beirut’s Hariri International Airport at 3:45 p.m. (1345 GMT), ahead of meetings with the president and prime minister and an address to national leaders, the pope’s second to a foreign government.

Lebanon, which has the largest share of Christians in the Middle East, has been rocked by the spillover of the Gaza conflict, as Israel and the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim militant group Hezbollah went to war, culminating in a devastating Israeli offensive.

Leaders in Lebanon, which hosts 1 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees and is also struggling to recover from years of economic crisis, are worried Israel will dramatically escalate its strikes in coming months.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Friday that he hoped Leo’s visit would help bring an end to Israeli attacks. Lebanon’s diverse communities have also welcomed the papal trip, with leading Druze cleric Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna saying Lebanon “needs the glimmer of hope represented by this visit”.

Pope visiting five Lebanese cities and towns

Leo, a relative unknown on the world stage before becoming pope in May, is being closely watched as he makes his first speeches overseas and interacts for the first time with people outside mainly Catholic Italy.

On Saturday, Leo visited Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque, in his first visit as pope to a Muslim place of worship. He removed his shoes in a sign of respect but did not pray at the mosque as planned, which appeared to surprise Vatican officials.

The pope, 70 and in good health, has a crowded itinerary in Lebanon, visiting five cities and towns from Sunday to Tuesday, when he returns to Rome. Leo will not travel to the south, the target of Israeli strikes.

His schedule includes a prayer at the site of a 2020 chemical explosion at the Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage.

He will also lead an outdoor Mass on the Beirut waterfront and visit a psychiatric hospital, one of the few mental health facilities in Lebanon, where carers and residents are eagerly anticipating his arrival.