Pope Leo XIV and the Holy See's Friendship with Lebanon

The close relationship between Lebanon and the Holy See is one born out of an ancient history, but which is especially active today, says the nation’s Ambassador to the Holy See.

It was Lebanon which was part of Leo XIV’s first voyage as Pope and both during his time there and since, Leo has referred to the country with particular warmth as beloved Lebanon.

“Dear people of Lebanon, I invite you to cultivate always an attitude of praise and gratitude. You are the recipients of a rare beauty with which the Lord has adorned your land,” said Leo XIV at the close of his visit to the nation in December. “At the same time, you are witnesses and victims of how evil, in its various forms, can obscure this splendor.”

That visit, coming on the back of his trip to Nicaea for the 1700th anniversary of the Council, formed part of Leo’s first trip as Pontiff outside Italy and demonstrated the close bond between Lebanon and the Holy See. For the Pope personally it appeared to be a significant and often emotive experience.

Credit: Vatican Media

“I am deeply moved and immensely grateful to stand among you today,” he told the crowds in Beirut. Lebanon, Leo said, is a “blessed land – a land exalted by the prophets of the Old Testament, who beheld in its towering cedars emblems of the righteous soul that flourishes beneath heaven’s vigilant gaze; a land where the echo of the Logos has never fallen silent, but continues to call forth, from century to century, those who desire to open their hearts to the living God.”