SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Pope Leo XIV travels to Beirut next week in his first papal visit to the Middle East. Lebanon has the highest percentage of Christians in the region, and as correspondent Jane Arraf reports, the planned trip has sparked hope and worry.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: A few miles outside Beirut, workers are building a huge stage at the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate, the seat of the highest-ranking Catholic official here, next to the pope. The workers are mostly Syrian refugees. Lebanon is a small country that hosts what the U.N. says is the world's biggest percentage of refugees, a group mentioned often by recent popes. Nieman Azzi (ph), a Lebanese American event organizer, oversees preparations.
NEIMAN AZZI: This is in the middle there where the pope and the cardinals they stay. And on the both side, there is the choir and the musician.
ARRAF: He says when it's finished, the pope will sit on a stage filled with cedars, the trees mentioned in the Bible and the symbol of Lebanon. Fifteen thousand people are expected at the site for just one of Pope Leo's dozen stops during his three-day visit. This part of Lebanon is extremely safe. But still...
AZZI: The security of being controlled for this mass of people to be checked like they're going to the airport. It's exactly the same security.
ARRAF: Azzi says he hopes the pope's visit will shed a different light on his country, where at least 18 religions coexist.
AZZI: It's a beautiful message, globally, to mention that Lebanon is not a place for war. It's not a place of hate. It's not a place of killing. It's a message for all the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
ARRAF: Present-day Lebanon in the South is believed to be the site of Jesus's first miracle - turning water into wine. The pope's visit, though, will focus on Beirut in the north, including a stop at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lebanon, where a 28-foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary with a golden crown holds out her hands towards the Mediterranean Sea.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
ARRAF: The tranquility here is far removed from ongoing Israeli attacks in south Lebanon, despite a ceasefire a year ago. Many Christians there are upset the pope won't be visiting the south. Father Fadi El Mir was part of the commission that planned the papal visit. He recommended to the Vatican that the pope go south.
FADI EL MIR: I said for them, the people there, they need his presence. It will be great for them to see the people in Tyre or in Sidon or in this region there. And they said, no, no, it's impossible.
ARRAF: He says he understood it was for security reasons. Father Fadi was one of the organizers for Pope John Paul's visit to the shrine in 1997. Pope Benedict visited Lebanon in 2012. The priest says pretty much everything is ready for Pope Leo, including a special chair. He takes us down the hall to a locked room.
EL MIR: This is the chair.
ARRAF: That's a big chair.
EL MIR: Yes, a big chair (laughter) with lions and the great power of Jesus for love. Not to eat each other, but to love.
ARRAF: The power to love, not to eat each other, he says - a metaphor. He throws a white sheet back over the wooden chair with its carved lions and creamy new upholstery.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: (Singing in non-English language).
ARRAF: Outside, visitors - Christian and Muslim - climb the circular steps to the base of the elevated statue, looking out to sea. They light candles and say prayers. Rima Zghayb (ph), here with her husband and small children, says it's a hugely important visit.
RIMA ZGHAYB: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: "For us, as Christians, it's very important the pope is coming to visit us in the situation we're living in now," she says. The theme of the pope's visit here is blessed are the peacemakers. If he can't bring peace, his visit will at least show the Lebanese people that they're not alone.
For NPR News, I'm Jane Arraf in Harissa, Lebanon.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEB WILDBLOOD'S "OF TRANSITION") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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