“Christ is close to each one of you,” wrote Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin in a message addressed on behalf of Pope Leo XIV to the faithful of Beirut. The message commemorates the fifth anniversary of the double explosion on August 4, 2020, of a warehouse in the port containing a large stock of ammonium nitrate.
The Pope expressed his spiritual closeness to all the Lebanese people and invited them to faith and hope in God, assuring them of his support and affection
The explosions, the actual causes of which were never determined, devastated the Lebanese capital, killing 235 people and injuring 6,500.
The papal message was read by the Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon, Archbishop Paolo Borgia, during a prayer vigil held in Beirut on the evening of August 3, 2025.
Spiritual closeness and hope
“Pope Leo XIV assures you and all Lebanese of his spiritual closeness and communion of prayer,” Cardinal Parolin said in the message released in full in Arabic by Vatican News, the official news portal of the Holy See.
He reflects on “the attitude and words of Christ in the face of the death of his friend Lazarus,” urging people not to lose hope, five years after this tragedy, which is still under investigation by the Lebanese authorities.
“Faced with death, Jesus wept (cf. Jn 11:35) and his tears unite with ours in the face of the loss and suffering of our loved ones,” Cardinal Parolin said in his message.
He explains that the episode of Lazarus' resurrection gives “the assurance that Christ is the God of life and that death does not and will never have the last word.”
“Since our baptism, for those who believe, a door has been opened to the Father's house, where God himself awaits us,” explains the Secretary of State of the Holy See.
The Pope “invites you, like the cedars of Lebanon, symbol of your country, to look up to heaven, where God our Father is,” he insists. “The Pope ardently desires that each of you feel his affection,” Cardinal Parolin assured, emphasizing that “beloved and suffering Lebanon remains at the heart of his prayers.”
He also expressed his support for “the bishops, priests, religious men and women who are close to the people and who support them by helping them to keep their eyes fixed on heaven and to walk on earth in hope, especially through trials.”
Leo XIV then entrusted the Lebanese people to “the protection and maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, as well as that of St. Charbel and the other Lebanese saints.”
The prospect of a papal visit
After the cancellation of Pope Francis' trip planned for June 2022, Lebanon could be one of the first destinations of an apostolic journey by Leo XIV. President Joseph Aoun extended an invitation to him to this effect during their first meeting on May 18, after the Mass for the installation of the new pope. The Lebanese president was then received by Leo XIV in a private audience on June 13, 2025.
To date, three popes have visited Lebanon: Paul VI in 1964 (although this was only a stopover on his way to the Eucharistic Congress in Bombay, India), John Paul II in 1997, and Benedict XVI in 2012.
Many Lebanese people in Rome in recent days for the Jubilee for Youth expressed their desire for a visit by the pope, stressing that the country's Christian communities and society as a whole “need” his support.
