Updated November 29, 2025 at 6:01 AM EST
HARISSA, Lebanon – In the mountains near Beirut, a giant statue of the Virgin Mary atop a spiral pedestal holds her hands out in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, visible beyond the railing of Our Lady of Lebanon sanctuary.
It's a tranquil place; far removed although not unaffected by the country's seemingly endless cycle of economic turmoil and security threats .
Lebanon is a small multi-faith country that is about 30 percent Christian – the biggest percentage of any country in the Middle East. Last week the country celebrated a quiet 82nd independence day from French rule – with no grand parades or festivities because of what Lebanese normally call 'the situation'.
The current situation is a year-old ceasefire with Israel, routinely broken by the Israeli military, including a drone strike in Beirut last week that killed the militant group Hezbollah's second-in-command. The country's financial collapse in 2019 and a devastating port explosion a year later that killed 218 people still cast a long shadow.
"The church's mission is for everyone, for all Lebanon," says Father Fadi El Mir, in charge of logistics for the papal visit to Our Lady of Lebanon, where Pope Leo will address the clergy and other religious workers on Monday. "The poverty in our country is increasing every day and that's why the pope will say a lot of things to encourage us to be more effective in society and especially in our church."
In France he ministered to struggling young Lebanese who didn't just leave, he says, but rather "escaped" an impossible situation in Lebanon, where there are few opportunities to make a living or provide for a family.
Father Fadi, who has served in missions including South Africa and France since being ordained in 1967 says people want the Church to be more "merciful' and responsive to them, particularly in Lebanon's many Catholic-run hospitals and schools.
He speaks matter-of-factly about being shot at while he was in charge of a school in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
"They shot at the doors while I was coming inside. I don't know why," he says, shrugging.
It was the same large Christian school where a priest was killed 40 years ago by militants who did not want it there, he says. Southern Lebanon is predominantly Shiite Muslim, as is the student population in Catholic schools, widely considered a better education than the public school system.
Father Fadi says any tension between religious groups in Lebanon is politically driven – not rooted in the community.
Israeli attacks during the war with Hezbollah have devastated Christian as well as Muslim villages along the Lebanese-Israel border in the south.
Many Christians there are upset that Pope Leo will remain in Beirut and northern Lebanon during his visit.
Father Fadi, a member of the Lebanese organizing committee for the visit, says he told the Vatican Pope Leo should go south.
"I said 'the people there need his presence. It would be great for him to see the people in Tyre, in that region," he says. "They said 'No, no, it's impossible'."
He says he understood it was for security reasons.
'A source of strength for us'
The Tyre district in southern Lebanon includes part of the Galilee which stretches into northern Israel. It's where Jesus was believed to have preached, including the village of Canna in what is now Lebanon. According to the Bible, Jesus at a wedding in Canna performed his first known miracle – turning water into wine.
Christians in Canna are now a small minority among Muslim residents. The hillside grotto where Jesus and Mary are said to have rested is open to visitors but on a recent afternoon was deserted – with burned out candles evidence of prayers but not a single visitor.
The nearby village of Alma al-Chaab, the only 100 percent Christian community remaining in the Tyre district, has just a fraction of its population left after Israeli air strikes demolished or damaged almost 300 homes as well as town infrastructure during the war with Hezbollah.
Mayor Chadi Sayah, elected five months ago, has organized a new ambulance paid for by donations from townspeople and a new garbage truck after the previous one was destroyed.
As in many villages, people here work and save for decades to build multi-generational homes. Some of the damaged homes were small stone houses 400 years old; others new construction with swimming pools and now destroyed gardens.
Almost everything grows here – oranges, olives, avocado and pomegranates. There are palm trees and pine trees that produce precious pine nuts – a source of revenue for the village. Sayah points out an area where hundreds of pine trees were chopped down while Israel occupied the village in 2024.
At the edge of Alma al-Chaab, the Israeli border and military posts are less than a mile away with the coast of the Israeli city of Nahariya visible in the distance. In the other direction is a view of the bright blue waters of Lebanon's Bay of Naqoura.
Sayah, on leave as a math teacher, says the village has not received a lot of support either from the state – which he says is unable to help anyone – or the church.
"We love the Lebanese state. But they should love us as much as we love them," he says, noting that a year after a ceasefire, they have neither electricity nor running water. "We are a part of the Lebanese land. We want to stay here."
He also says he expected more support from the Catholic and Maronite Catholic church.
"We believed the Church should help us rebuild," he says. "If they want Christians to stay in this area they need to help."
He reads a letter he wrote to Pope Leo to try to persuade him to come south, saying "your visit, even if brief would be a profound source of strength for us, a sign that the Church remembers her children on the borders and a message to the world that these lands and their people are not forgotten."
He says he won't be going to any of the Pope's events – nor will many of the village residents. Instead they will gather and plant new pine trees to replace the ones chopped down in the war.
Copyright 2025 NPR
