•Pope Leo XIV (C)
Pope Leo XIV will pray at the site of the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion during an upcoming trip to Lebanon and Turkey, the Vatican said yesterday.
The US-born pope is making his first overseas visit since becoming head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in May, following the death of Argentina’s Pope Francis, reports AFP.
The trip begins on November 27 in Turkey, focused around events marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, a milestone in Church history.
Leo will also visit Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and religious leaders, including the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
On November 30, the pope will head to Lebanon for a visit that will include meetings with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and local clergy, and prayers at the tomb of St. Charbel, the country’s patron saint.
On December 2 he will hold a silent prayer at the site of the Beirut port explosion that killed more than 220 people.
The disaster was one of the world’s largest non-nuclear blasts, ravaging swathes of the Lebanese capital and injuring more than 6,500 people.
The last pope to visit Lebanon was Benedict XVI in 2012, while the last papal visit to Turkey was in 2014, when Francis travelled to Ankara and Istanbul.
