(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)) São Paulo – Pope Leo XIV, the head of the Catholic Church, concluded his trip to Lebanon on Tuesday (2). This was the pontiff's first international journey and his first visit to an Arab country since his election in May this year. Before Lebanon, where he arrived on November 30, the Pope visited Turkey, which is also in the Middle East but is not an Arab country.

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In his final address in Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV spoke about peace and dialogue.“Weapons kill. Negotiation, mediation, and dialogue build. Let us all choose peace as a path, not just as a goal,” he said during a farewell ceremony at Beirut's Rafiq Hariri International Airport, in the presence of Lebanon's President, Joseph Aoun.

Leo XIV praised the Lebanese people.“We have been together, and being together in Lebanon is contagious: here I found a people who do not seek isolation, but connection,” he said.“Thus, if arriving meant delicately entering your culture, leaving this land is taking you in my heart,” he added, expressing hope that the spirit of fraternity and commitment to peace spreads throughout the Middle East.

The leader of the Catholic Church said the visit fulfilled a wish of Pope Francis, as the Argentine pope had wanted to come to Lebanon.“In truth, he is with us, accompanying us in the company of other witnesses of the Gospel who await us in God's eternal embrace: we are heirs of what they believed in, of the faith, hope, and love that inspired them,” he said, according to Vatican News.

In Lebanon, the pope had a packed schedule, including a Mass in the capital for around 150,000 people; a prayer at Beirut Port, the site of the 2020 explosion; a visit to the Hospital de la Croix, which cares for 800 mentally ill and psychiatric patients; a meeting with Christian and Muslim religious leaders at Martyrs' Square; a prayer at the tomb of Saint Charbel Maklūf; a gathering with bishops at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa; and a celebration with young people in Bkerké, among others.

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Translated by Guilherme Miranda

©Giuseppe Cacace/AFP©Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

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