BEIRUT (AP) — Pope Leo XIV stood in silent prayer Tuesday among the wreckage of the Beirut port, a site that has become a grim monument to one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and to the official impunity that has followed.
On the final day of his first foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon, the American pontiff made a solemn visit to the epicenter of the August 4, 2020, blast, which killed 218 people, injured thousands, and devastated vast swaths of the Lebanese capital. He was met by relatives of the victims, who held photographs of their loved ones aloft near the skeletal remains of the grain silos and piles of scorched vehicles.
“Five years on, these families are still seeking justice,” the pontiff acknowledged in brief remarks, his voice low. “I stand with you in your grief and in your righteous demand for truth. A society that obscures the truth sows the seeds of perpetual discord.”
The visit carried profound symbolic weight. The explosion, caused by the negligent storage of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, was a traumatic event that laid bare decades of systemic state corruption and mismanagement. To date, no senior official has been held accountable, with a domestic judicial investigation facing persistent political obstruction.
“When he arrived in Lebanon on Sunday, Leo urged the country’s political leaders to pursue the truth as a means of peace and reconciliation,” a Vatican spokesperson noted. “His presence at the port is a powerful, silent reinforcement of that message.”
The Pope’s three-day visit to Lebanon comes at a newly tenuous time for the country, which remains mired in a profound economic collapse and political deadlock, further strained by regional tensions stemming from the war in Gaza. Many Lebanese have welcomed his presence as a beacon of hope and a call for unity.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pope Leo visited the De La Croix hospital, which specializes in psychological care, where he was greeted by crowds of children dressed in colorful miniature Swiss Guard uniforms. The previous day, he celebrated Lebanon’s tradition of interfaith coexistence alongside Christian and Muslim leaders, receiving a raucous welcome.
“Lebanon’s model of unity is more crucial now than ever,” he told an interfaith gathering on Monday. “I ask for the divine gift of peace for this land and for all peoples of the region who suffer from conflict.”
But it was the image of the Pope amid the port’s ruins that resonated most deeply—a spiritual leader bearing witness at a physical scar that represents a national wound. As he departed, family members of the victims stood vigil, their quiet presence a reminder that for them, the catastrophe is not a memory, but an ongoing struggle for answers in a nation where accountability remains elusive.
