Wrapping up his first papal trip abroad to Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV left the region on Dec. 2 with a renewed sense of hope for religious unity between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
“I can’t think of a better papal visit than this one,” Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn told The Tablet.
Father Antoine Rizk, superior general of the Basilian Salvatorian Order, an Eastern Catholic monastic order in Joun, El-Chouf, near Sidon, Lebanon, told The Tablet the central message of Pope Leo’s visit to Turkey and Lebanon is that “Christians are not forgotten, and that we have hope to live in peace with everyone.”
Pope Leo began his journey in Ankara, Turkey, on Nov. 27, meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other government officials.
The following day, the Holy Father marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in Iznik, the site of the ancient city of Nicaea. There, Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I hosted an ecumenical prayer, with Pope Leo joining him in reciting the Nicene Creed.
They were joined by the Greek Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, among others. The religious leaders took turns reciting the prayers in English, Greek, and Arabic. The service also included a Catholic choir singing in Latin and an Orthodox choir singing in Greek.
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Patriarch Bartholomew emphasized the enduring power of what occurred in Nicaea and that, despite years of division, “we nevertheless approach this sacred commemoration with shared reverence and a common feeling of hope.”
Pope Leo reiterated a call for unity, noting “the world is crying for our reconciliation.”
On Nov. 29, Pope Leo visited the Blue Mosque. However, unlike Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis before him, he did not stop to pray. The visit was followed by a stop at the Mor Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church, where he prayed and met privately with the nation’s Christian leaders.
Later in the day, he met Patriarch Bartholomew at the Patriarchal Palace in Istanbul to sign a joint declaration for peace, where they urged world leaders to “do everything possible to ensure that the tragedy of war ceases immediately,” and encourage the faithful to “reject any use of religion and the name of God to justify violence.”
The joint declaration refers to the Council of Nicaea as “a providential event of unity” and expresses hope that the 1,700th anniversary of the council “can inspire new and courageous steps on the path towards unity.”
Bishop Mansour said, “You look at some of the beautiful comments [Pope Leo has] made about Church unity — he longs for it, and this is an opportune time, especially in the face of secularism and anti-Christian sentiments throughout the world.” He added, “This is the time for the Churches of the East to get together and not be divided.”
Pope Leo began the second leg of his journey in Beirut on Nov. 30, meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, a Maronite Catholic, and religious leaders at the Presidential Palace.
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The next day, Pope Leo met with bishops and clergy at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa.
Father Rizk described his meeting with Pope Leo at the shrine to The Tablet as a “moving” experience.
“I shook his hand and introduced myself to him, and we had a brief conversation,” he said. “You could really feel the energy in the room when he walked in.”
In his address, the Holy Father recalled Pope St. John Paul II’s words to the Lebanese, that they “are the ones responsible for hope.”
Pope Leo also listened to the testimonies of pastoral workers. He heard from Loren Capobres, an immigrant who came to Lebanon from the Philippines, and from Sister Dima Chebib of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who is the director of a school in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek.
Bishop Mansour said that the testimonies from the pastoral workers “truly incarnate the service to the poor, service to the migrants, service to the imprisoned.”
“So, it was poetry in motion,” he said.
On Dec. 2, Pope Leo visited patients at the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross in Jal Ed Dib, Lebanon, which is run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross. Sister Mary Youssef, Secretary General of the sisters, said the pope’s visit was “truly a miracle.”
“This pope’s pastoral visit made perfect sense,” Bishop Mansour said. “He was clearly moved by visiting the hospital, and the people were clearly moved.”
The pope concluded his visit to Lebanon by celebrating a Holy Mass at the Beirut Waterfront in memory of those who lost their lives in the Aug. 4, 2020, explosion that killed 218 people, injured over 7,000, and caused billions of dollars in damage.
The Mass, attended by 150,000 people, was a call for peace and unity, urging the people of Lebanon to overcome division and hardship.
“One of the great lessons Lebanon can teach the world is precisely showing a land where Islam and Christianity are both present and are respected, and there is a possibility to live together, to be friends,” Pope Leo said. “The stories, testimonies, witnesses that we have heard even in the last two days of people helping each other — Christians and Muslims — both of whom have had their villages destroyed, for example, saying we can come together and work together.”
Father Rizk said Pope Leo’s words at the site of the explosion in Beirut were poignant.
“He was trying to reach the people there in their suffering. You could tell that this was part of the reason for his visit, to tell people that we are here for you, while calling for justice for Lebanon.”
John Abi-Habib, a parishioner at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights, who serves as the honorary consul general of Lebanon from New Jersey and has family in Lebanon, praised Pope Leo for his visit.
“The Lebanese people put all their disputes aside and prayed together for three days,” Abi-Habib told The Tablet. “Every day and at every reception, you had all different religions present, making this a historic event for the pope and for his mission.
“Without Lebanon, it wouldn’t be the case, because Lebanon is the mission and the vision the pope believes in, which is a country in the Middle East where we can all coexist and live together in peace and unity.”
