Ruth Sherlock

At another pilgrimage site high in the mountains, Pope Leo heard testimonies, including from a priest helping refugees and a Filipina domestic worker, about the treatment of migrants in Lebanon.

Leo called on church workers to bring hope to their faithful, saying that even among the rubble of a world that has its own painful failures, it's important to offer prospects for rebirth.

Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Beirut.

Pope Leo began the day visiting a hilltop monastery with sweeping views of the sea to pray at the tomb of Saint Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese Maronite revered by both Christians and Muslims.

At another pilgrimage site high in the mountains, Pope Leo heard testimonies, including from a priest helping refugees and a Filipina domestic worker, about the treatment of migrants in Lebanon.

Leo called on church workers to bring hope to their faithful, saying that even among the rubble of a world that has its own painful failures, it's important to offer prospects for rebirth.

Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Beirut.

Pope Leo made his remarks at a welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace in Beirut.

Lebanon has suffered in recent years from conflict with Israel, an economic collapse and the explosion of chemicals at Beirut port.

in 2020 that devastated the capital.

Lebanon's political class has been accused of vast corruption.

To this day, no single senior Lebanese official has been convicted over the port explosion.

Standing beside Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Pope Leo said Lebanese leaders must seek truth for, quote, those who have suffered wrongs and injustice.

He said reconciliation must come from the top, with leaders setting aside their interests and recognising, quote, the common good as superior to the particular.

Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Beirut.

Speaking to journalists on the Papal Plain at the end of his visit to Turkey, Pope Leo said the country under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule is, quote, one example of what we would all be looking for throughout the world.

Pope Leo did acknowledge that Turkey has had, quote, various moments when it was not always the case.

But the remarks will be seen as tone deaf by human rights advocates in the face of Turkey's 40-year conflict with the Kurds and President Erdogan's erosion of Turkish democracy, which has also been felt acutely by Turkey's religious minorities.

Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Beirut.

This is the most diplomatically thorny part of Pope Leo's trip.