Beirut, Nov 30 (EFE) –
Thousands of people waited in the rain on Sunday to show Pope Leo XIV their affection as he traveled from Beirut airport to the presidential palace in the popemobile on his first day visiting Lebanon, on the second stop on his first international trip, which started in Turkey.
From the popemobile, he greeted the people waiting with white umbrellas for the Holy Father on the streets of Beirut until he reached the palace in Baabda, on the outskirts of the capital, where he met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
In the last few meters before arriving, people threw petals and rice in his path, while a group of men and some women danced the “dabke”—a popular folk dance in the Levant—and followed the vehicle, with one of them marking the rhythm with the “masbaha” (Muslim rosary).
Upon arrival at the palace, a screen projected images of the Holy Father.
His meeting with Lebanese Head of State Joseph Aoun will be followed by other meetings with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
The second and third days of his stay in Lebanon will include a visit to the tomb of the country’s best-known Maronite saint, Saint Charbel, in Annaya (center); an ecumenical interfaith meeting in Beirut’s city center; and a mass attended by more than 100,000 people.
The Pope arrived in Lebanon, still reeling from violence a year after the formal end of the war with Israel, compounded by a delicate economic situation and general instability. EFEnjd-ijm/mcd
