After praying at the blast site, the Pope celebrated the final Mass of his trip in front of an estimated 150,000 people gathered on Beirut’s waterfront.
Addressing the crowd, he lamented that the beauty of Lebanon had been “overshadowed by poverty and suffering, the wounds that have marked your history”.
But he appealed to the country’s diverse communities to unite to solve its problems.
“Let us cast off the armour of our ethnic and political divisions, open our religious confessions to mutual encounter and reawaken in our hearts the dream of a united Lebanon,” he said.
“A Lebanon where peace and justice reign, where all recognise each other as brothers and sisters.”
Returning to Rome on Tuesday, the Pope told reporters that Lebanon was an example of “a land where Islam and Christianity are both present and are respected”.
He later added: “I think those are lessons that would be important to be heard in Europe or North America – that we should perhaps be a little less fearful, and look at ways of promoting authentic dialogue and respect.”