Pope prays at site of Beirut port blast, calls for ‘justice and fraternity’ in Lebanon during mass

Pope Leo XIV prays at the site of a deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion that has become a symbol of Lebanon’s dysfunction, impunity and scars, on the final day of his visit to the country.

Relatives of some of the 218 people killed by the blast hold up photos of their loved ones as Leo arrives. They stand silently by the shell of the last standing grain silo destroyed by the blast and the piles of burned cars torched in its wake.

Leo stands in silent prayer among the wreckage.

The August 4, 2020, explosion tore through Beirut and did billions of dollars in damage after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate detonated in a warehouse. Five years on, the families are still seeking justice. No official has been convicted in a judicial investigation that has been repeatedly obstructed.

The pope then holds Mass along the Beirut waterfront, calling for Lebanon to be a “home of justice and fraternity” and a “prophetic sign of peace” in the region.

In his homily, Leo acknowledges the many crises that have scarred Lebanon, citing the port blast, economic crises and “the violence and conflicts that have reawakened ancient fears.”

He says it is natural to feel “paralyzed by powerlessness in the face of evil and oppressed by so many difficult situations.”

But the pope urges Lebanon’s people to not be resigned and to find ways to remain hopeful and grateful, insisting that justice is part of the equation.

“Let us cast off the armor 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 says. “A Lebanon where peace and justice reign, where all recognize each other as brothers and sisters.”

“Lebanon, stand up,” he says. “Be a home of justice and fraternity! Be a prophetic sign of peace for the whole of the Levant!”