Pope Leo XIV arrives to take part in a Divine Liturgy at Patriarchal Church of Saint George, in Istanbul on Nov. 30, 2025. <\/p>\n
Ozan Kose | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Pope Leo\u00a0travels 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\u00a0first overseas trip\u00a0as leader of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n
The first U.S. pope will arrive from Turkey, where he has been visiting for four days and warned that\u00a0humanity’s future was at risk\u00a0because of the world’s unusual number of bloody conflicts and\u00a0condemned violence in the name of religion.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Lebanon,\u00a0which has the largest share of Christians in the Middle East, has been rocked by the spillover of the\u00a0Gaza conflict,\u00a0as Israel and the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim militant group Hezbollah went to war, culminating in a devastating Israeli offensive.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah leader\u00a0Naim Qassem\u00a0said on Friday that he hoped Leo’s visit would help bring an end to Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n