Pope Leo XIV at a meeting with young people at the Maronite Patriarchate of Bkerké, north of Beirut, on December 1, 2025. GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP
In the square next to Bkerke's Maronite church, some twenty kilometers north of Beirut, scores of young people performed choreographed dances and songs on a stage set up for the momentous occasion: Pope Leo XIV was about to arrive. Over 15,000 waited in front of the building on Monday, December 1, in a throng that stretched for several hundred meters. Faithful supporters wore yellow caps in tribute to the Vatican flag's colors, as the banner waved throughout the crowd, which continued to dance and sing in celebration.
Evidently, the sense of fervor here, as in the rest of Beirut, was striking. It marked a change in atmosphere compared to the indifference shown in Turkey, a majority-Muslim country where the pope had begun his first trip, from November 27 to December 2, outside Italy.
Suddenly, a wave of screams and calls for the pope, worthy of those reserved for music stars, erupted. On a raised platform, Nawal, a 20-year-old from the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, sang along with her friends. "We love you, Pope Leo. I love you, Pope Leo," she shouted in Arabic as she caught sight of the pope approaching her in his popemobile. On stage, Robert Francis Prevost, who rarely shows emotion, appeared moved by the succession of gifts, performances, and songs organized by the young devotees.
