"I told the Holy Father of this terrible pain, and yet feeling a sense of peace and hope remembering how much God loves me," Melvine Khoury, a Maronite Catholic, said. "It cannot compare to Jesus' suffering on the cross."
"Where global leaders measure their strength in the power of their personalities, Leo's restraint leaves room to heed his rhetoric," writes NCR's Vatican correspondent Justin McLellan.
Pope Leo XIV's first foreign trip evidenced profound echoes of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Still, we are also starting to see points of difference emerge as well. Leo is not Francis 2.0. Leo is Leo.
Pope Leo XIV's press conference aboard the plane returning from his first papal trip abroad also touched on Ukraine, immigration and his spirituality, and revealed new insights into where he might travel next.
In Lebanon, the pontiff visited a hospital for people with mental disabilities, celebrated Mass for 150,000 and prayed at the site of a deadly 2020 chemical explosion.
"You have time! You have more time to dream, to plan and to do good," the pope said. "You are the present, and the future is already taking shape in your hands! You have the enthusiasm to change the course of history!"
Pope Leo XIV's visit to Lebanon over the weekend is a recognition of the importance of Lebanon's religious pluralism and a message to Christians not to abandon the region.
Addressing some 400 government officials at his first public engagement in Beirut, the pope said Lebanon needs "authorities and institutions that recognize the common good as superior to the particular."
The Vatican continues to advocate for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and, despite resistance, will continue to seek mediation between Israel and Palestine, Pope Leo XIV said in an impromptu airborne press conference.
The Vatican then sent out a corrected version of its bulletin about the trip, removing reference to the planned "brief moment of silent prayer," without further explanation.
Seventeen centuries after the Council of Nicaea crafted the creed that defined Christianity, Pope Leo XIV returned to the ancient site with an appeal to "overcome the scandal of the divisions" that fracture Christians.
Shortly after landing in Ankara Nov. 27, Pope Leo XIV advocated for harmony and dialogue in a moment marked by deep global fracture. His remarks set the tone for his six-day visit through Turkey and Lebanon.
"This first international trip will be a very public test of Leo's papacy," writes Fr. Thomas Reese. "I don't expect a home run on his first time at bat, but neither will he strike out. A base hit will be a win."
Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history's first American pope on the road.
The Nov. 27-Dec. 2 trip will show how the leader of the Catholic Church steps into the international stage and sets his tone as greets crowds and the press.
