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Christians have been emigrating for decades amid the conflict
Nicole Winfield,Kareem Chehayeb,Trisha ThomasMonday 01 December 2025 13:27 GMT
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Pope Leo has urged Lebanese people, and in particular Christians, to remain in the country despite years of conflict and the threat of the Islamic State.
Leo arrived in Lebanon on Sunday for his first trip as pope.
In his opening speech, he challenged the country’s political leaders to put aside their differences and act as peacemakers, while also asking Christians not to emigrate.
Christians comprise about a third of Lebanon’s population of five million.
That gives the small country the highest percentage of Christians in the Middle East.
A power-sharing agreement in place since Lebanon gained independence from France in 1943 stipulates that the president must be a Maronite Christian, meaning Lebanon is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state.
open image in galleryLeo waves from the popemobile as he arrives at the monastery (AP)Christianity has endured in its ancestral homeland even as the rise of the Islamic State drove an exodus from communities in Iraq and Syria that dated to the time of the Apostles.
The Christian exodus in Lebanon has been at a slower trickle after the main flight during the civil war.
However, emigration remains a concern for the Vatican, which sees the Christian presence there as a bulwark for the church in the region.
“We will stay here," said May Noon, a pilgrim waiting for Leo outside the St Charbel Monastery.
“No one can uproot us from this country. We must live it in it as brothers because the church has no enemy."
Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay accompanied a group of 60 people from the Lebanese diaspora in Australia to welcome Leo and join in his prayer for peace, but to also reinforce the Christian presence in the country.
open image in galleryThe popemobile carrying Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Monastery of Saint Maroun in Annaya, Lebanon (AP)“Even though we live abroad, we feel that we need to support young people and the families to stay here,” he said as he waited for the pope to meet with clergy in Harissa, north of Beirut.
“We don’t like to see more and more people leaving Lebanon, especially the Christians.”
Bishop Tarabay said the Lebanese people were grateful that Leo chose to visit on his maiden voyage as pope.
“He decided to say that there we have suffering people, we have young people that are very much like at the edge of desperation,” he said.
Leo, he said, decided: “I have to go there and to tell them ‘You’re not forgotten.’”
On Monday, the pope prayed at the tomb of St Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese saint revered among Christians and Muslims alike.
Bells rang out as Leo's covered popemobile snaked its way through the rain and thousands of enthusiastic people lining his motorcade route into Annaya, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Beirut.
open image in galleryThe pope prays at the tomb of St Charbel Makhlouf (AP)Some waved Lebanese and Vatican flags and tossed flower petals and rice on his car in a gesture of welcome as he zoomed by.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the hilltop monastery of St Maroun overlooking the sea to pray at the tomb of the saint, a Lebanese Maronite hermit who lived from 1828 to 1898.
Believers credit him with miraculous healings that have occurred after people prayed for his intercession.
Leo prayed quietly in the darkened tomb, and offered a lamp as a gift of light for the monastery.
“Sisters and brothers, today we entrust to St Charbel’s intercession the needs of the church, Lebanon and the world,” Leo said in French.
“For the world, we ask for peace. We especially implore it for Lebanon and for the entire Levant.”
Leo then received a raucous welcome from nuns and priests at the Our Lady of Lebanon sanctuary in Harissa, a town north of Beirut.
open image in galleryA group of nuns reach out to Pope Leo XIV as he arrives at the Catholic basilica of Harissa, Lebanon (AP)In the afternoon, the pope was to preside over an interfaith gathering alongside Lebanon's Christian and Muslim leaders in the capital Beirut.
There, Leo was expected to hammer home his core message of peace and Christian-Muslim coexistence in Lebanon and beyond at a time of conflict in Gaza and political tensions in Lebanon that are worse than they have been in years.
His visit comes at a tenuous time for the tiny Mediterranean country after years of economic crises and political deadlock, punctuated by the 2020 Beirut port blast.
“We, as Lebanese, need this visit after all the wars, crises and despair that we have lived,” said the Reverend Youssef Nasr, the secretary-general of Catholic Schools in Lebanon who was on hand to welcome Leo at the Our Lady of Lebanon Basilica in Harissa, a town north of Beirut.
“The pope’s visit gives a new push to the Lebanese to rise and cling to their country."
More recently, Lebanon has been deeply divided over calls for Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group and political party, to disarm after fighting a war with Israel last year that left the country deeply damaged.
Leo was to end the day at a rally for Lebanese youth at Bkerki, the seat of the Maronite church, where he is expected to encourage them to persevere and not leave the country like many others despite Lebanon’s many challenges.
