Pope Leo XIV led a silent prayer at the site of the Beirut port explosion and asked for justice for its victims, as he wrapped up his three-day visit to Lebanon.
He also met some relatives of the 218 people who were killed in the massive explosion on 4 August 2020, which destroyed a large part of the capital.
Later, the pope said he was “touched” by his visit to the port and shared “the thirst for truth and justice, of many families, of an entire country”.
No one was held accountable for the disaster, which occurred when a fire triggered the detonation of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored poorly in a port warehouse for nearly six years.
It is known that the officials and politicians know about the chemical sequence and the risk it poses but they do not get it, remove it.
Relatives and activists of the victims say that the domestic investigation of the disaster has been hindered by the political leadership’s efforts to shield those responsible from scrutiny.
Cecile Rookoz, whose brother Joseph was killed, said the Pope’s visit to the Memorial was “very important”. “We know that he raised his voice for justice, and we need justice for our brothers and all the victims of the explosion,” he added.
Tatiana Havouty, who lost her father Ghassan in the explosion, said: “He tried to help us find the truth in a way that people, maybe families, how many of us look at.”
After praying at the Blast Site, the pope celebrated the last mass of his trip in front of an estimated 150,000 people gathered on Beirut’s Waterfront.
Told by the people, he lamented that the beauty of Lebanon “is covered by poverty and suffering, the scars that mark your history”.
But he asked the different communities in the country to come together to solve their problems.
“Let’s discard the armor of our ethnic and political divisions, open our religious confessions to meet each other and heal the dream of a United Lebanon,” he said. “A Lebanon where peace and justice reign, where everyone recognizes each other as brothers.”
Since the last Papal visit in 2012, the small country has been plagued by several crises.
In 2019, the country suffered one of the worst economic depressions recorded in modern times, leaving millions in poverty.
This was followed by anti-government protests, the coronavirus pandemic, and then the Beirut port explosion.
Political paralysis has prevented the country from passing the economic and structural reforms that foreign donors have demanded in exchange for billions of dollars in aid.
Lebanon was later devastated by a 13-month war between the Shia Muslim Hezbollah movement and Israel, which killed 4,000 Lebanese and 120 Israelis.
A temporary ceasefire in the conflict passed a year ago, but Israel continues to attack targets it says are linked to Hezbollah, which it accuses of being an Iranian-backed group.