Pope Leo finds his voice on first foreign trip

Pope Leo XIV has arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut a week after Israeli air strikes hit the Lebanese capital.

For a man known for being measured and careful in what he does, it seems quite the statement to land in a country so affected by conflict in what is his first foreign trip.

The Pope has already spent three days in Turkey and, watching his diplomacy at close quarters, we are learning a little more about how he intends to carry out his duties as both spiritual leader and head of state of Vatican City.

Pope Leo’s interactions with journalists are gentle and softly spoken, and his words always appear thought out and deliberate.

His predecessor, Pope Francis, often spoke at length to reporters, sometimes very passionately and from the heart.

But sometimes that meant his aides had the job of risk management, having to explain statements that appeared to be a departure from what the Pope had previously said or a diplomatic faux pas.

Pope Francis wrote in his autobiography that when his papacy began in 2013, he felt that he would only have two or three years in the role. He certainly acted like a man on a mission, quickly trying to put into motion his vision for the Church.

Six months into his papacy, Pope Leo still looks like a man who is taking in the gravity of the role, and weighing up his options. There are times when he can appear slightly emotional about where he finds himself.

At the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul, as he stood at the altar before the congregation made up of the tiny Christian minority that had welcomed him so warmly and joined worship with him, the pope took a moment where he even appeared to be holding back tears.

In a way, it was reminiscent of that moment in May when he stepped on to the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, having just agreed to take on the daunting task of leading well over a billion people in something so personal and sensitive as their faith.

As a statesman leading the Vatican, he can often appear to be in listening mode, but on this trip, Pope Leo has shown that he can still issue some strong statements.

Standing next to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he decried powerful countries flexing their economic and military might, blaming that for heightened levels of conflict around the world and saying “the future of humanity is at stake”.

At an event marking 1,700 years since a hugely significant Christian council in what is now the Turkish city of Iznik, he said: “We must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism.”

On the plane from Istanbul to Beirut, when addressing the decades old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, he said the only solution had to include a Palestinian state.

“We all know that at this time Israel still does not accept that solution,” he said but quickly followed that up by saying the Vatican was still “friends with Israel” and was seeking to be a mediating voice.

Pope Leo’s first act in Lebanon, a country with huge governance issues, was to sit alongside the country’s leading politicians and remind them they should be dedicated to the service of their people.

The Pope himself has described the purpose of his visit to both Turkey and Lebanon as to be “a messenger of peace”. There is no question that in Lebanon in particular there has been a great deal of anticipation.

“It means a lot to me. He could have visited other countries, but he gave priority to Lebanon while it is still at war,” Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi, leader of the Maronite Catholic Church (to which most Lebanese Christians belong) told the BBC.

“He brings hope when the Lebanese feel abandoned and we feel uplifted,” he says.

The Pope’s visit here provides a boost to the third of the country that is estimated to be Christian, but all Lebanese have been granted a two-day national holiday and those from all major faiths have welcomed him.

Even Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim political party and militia considered a terrorist organisation by countries including the UK and US, conveyed its greetings.

In an open letter, the group talked of a “full welcome” and “deep appreciation” for the Pope’s “honourable presence”. Among the Lebanese and Vatican flags being waved as his motorcade drove from Beirut’s airport, there were Hezbollah flags too.

While in Lebanon, Pope Leo will meet Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi, but also other local Christian, Muslim and Druze leaders.

He has certainly cast himself as a bridge-builder; between peoples, faiths, Christian denominations and even closer to home, becoming pope as he did at a time when divisions between progressive and traditionalist Catholics appeared to be growing.

There are, of course, limits to the ambition of togetherness.

In Turkey when the Pope wanted to bring together different Christian traditions to celebrate a time when they had all been united, the Russian Orthodox Church did not send a representative.

There will always be criticism. Some were left disappointed that the Pope did not use his visit to Turkey to deliver a message to Erdogan about the suppression of opposition or jailing of journalists.

Some in Lebanon are angered that Pope Leo is not visiting those most directly affected by war.

“No one has even asked about us,” said Geryes Jabbour, who is from the Christian village of Sarda, near the Israeli border.

“We are worn out, we have been set back decades, but we are not even on the Pope’s mind,” he said, echoing the views of some others in southern Lebanon.

That day in May, Leo may have suddenly (and for him perhaps unexpectedly) acquired one of the most powerful moral platforms, but on a human level, he is still a man from South Side Chicago growing into a role where one wrong step could have huge ramifications.

Unlike Pope Francis he does not seem like a man looking to shake things up quickly, but Pope Leo has shown on his first foreign trip that he is finding his voice on the world stage.