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ROME: Pope Leo XIV will pray at the site of the 2020 port blast in Beirut that killed over 200 people and compounded Lebanon’s economic and political crisis during his first foreign trip as pope next month that will also take him to Turkiye to mark an important anniversary with Orthodox Christians.
The Vatican on Monday released the itinerary of Leo’s Nov. 27-Dec. 2 trip. It includes several moments for history’s first American pope to speak about interfaith and ecumenical relations, as well as the plight of Christians in the Middle East and regional tensions overall.
Pope Francis had planned to visit both countries but died earlier this year before he could — he had particularly long wanted to go to Lebanon, but the country’s economic and political crisis prevented a visit during his lifetime.
The main impetus for traveling to Turkiye this year was to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.
Leo made clear from the start of his pontificate that he would keep Francis’ commitment, and has several moments of prayer planned with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew I.
Nicaea, today located in İznik on a lake southeast of Istanbul, is one of seven ecumenical councils that are recognized by the Eastern Orthodox. Leo will travel there by helicopter on Nov. 28 for a brief prayer near the archaeological excavations of the ancient Basilica of Saint Neophytos.
In addition to the traditional protocol visits with Turkish and Lebanese leaders, meetings with Catholic clergy and liturgies, Leo’s visit to the site of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast will likely be another stirring moment in his trip, coming on its final day.
The blast tore through the Lebanese capital after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate detonated in a warehouse. The gigantic explosion killed at least 218 people, according to an AP count, wounded more than 6,000 others and devastated large swaths of Beirut, causing billions of dollars in damages.
Lebanese citizens were enraged by the blast, which appeared to be the result of government negligence, coming on top of an economic crisis spurred by decades of corruption and financial crimes. But an investigation into the causes of the blast repeatedly stalled, and five years on, no official has been convicted.
While Leo will celebrate Mass on the Beirut waterfront and travel to some areas near the Lebanese capital, his itinerary is significant for where he is not going: He will not visit Lebanon’s south, battered by last year’s war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
While the brunt of the destruction was concentrated in Shiite communities that form Hezbollah’s main base of support, Christian communities were also impacted by the conflict, with houses, agricultural land and even churches destroyed. Christians groups in southern Lebanon had lobbied for the pope to visit the area.
In Turkiye, there are also no plans for Leo to visit the landmark Hagia Sophia monument in Istanbul as previous popes have done. The former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica, which was a mosque during Ottoman times, was a museum when Pope Francis visited in 2014.
But in 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ‘s government changed its status from a museum back to a mosque and opened it up to Muslim worship. At the time, Francis said he was “deeply pained” by the decision.
Despite the renovations to preserve its historic domes, Hagia Sofia remains open to visitors and worshippers. Leo will visit the nearby Sultan Ahmed Mosque, popularly known as the Blue Mosque.

BEIRUT: US envoy Morgan Ortagus is expected in Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese officials on disarming militant group Hezbollah, sources familiar with her visit said, amid fears in Lebanon that Israel could launch a renewed air war on the group.
Those worries have been driven by days of intensifying Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s south and east that have killed more than a dozen people, most of them Hezbollah members, according to Lebanese security sources.
Lebanon fears the bombing shows Israel intends to ramp up its air campaign, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was intended to end a year-long war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Ortagus, the White House’s deputy Middle East envoy, is expected to attend a meeting on Wednesday reviewing the Lebanese army’s efforts to clear Hezbollah arms caches in the country’s south, in line with the 2024 truce.
Another US envoy, Tom Barrack, warned last week that Hezbollah may face a new confrontation with Israel if Lebanese authorities fail to act quickly to disarm the group in full, which Hezbollah has rejected doing so far.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed a man that Israel said was a weapons dealer on behalf of Hezbollah. Lebanese security sources said the man, named Ali Al-Musawi, was the most senior member of the group to be killed since the ceasefire.
Also on Sunday, United Nations peacekeepers said they had “neutralized” an Israeli drone that was flying over their patrol in south Lebanon in “an aggressive manner.”
A source briefed on the incident told Reuters peacekeepers shot the drone instead of downing it with jamming devices because it was deemed to be posing a threat, and that an Israeli tank then fired a warning shot near peacekeepeers.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the drone was carrying out “routine intelligence gathering” and was not posing a threat. He said Israeli troops then threw a hand grenade at the area but did not fire directly at UN troops.
The Israeli military says its continued strikes in Lebanon are targeting Hezbollah’s attempts to re-establish military infrastructure in the south, which the group denies doing.