By Lynn ZovighianShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member“The Middle East needs new approaches … I ask the international community once again to spare no effort in promoting processes of dialogue and reconciliation.” This was Pope Leo XIV’s call to action during his homily at Mass in Beirut near the site of the Beirut port explosion. Lebanon welcomed Pope Leo on his first apostolic journey—a feat that some doubted would materialize amid Israel’s renewed military campaign in Lebanon and widespread skepticism about Lebanon’s ability to disarm Hezbollah.
A New Brand for Global Reckoning?
Under the banner “Blessed are the peacemakers!” the papal visit produced historic moments. Pope Leo greeted Lebanon’s youth from a golf cart rather than the bullet-proof popemobile. Diverse faith groups, including churches with fewer than 10,000 members in the country, united in a call for co-existence and peace. Lebanon’s global brand of insecurity and conflict gave way to something different: credibility, respect and leadership.
...Lebanon proved that it can still deliver when the stakes are high. Every element of the papal visit—from security to operations to inspiring innovation—demonstrated a capacity that much of the world assumed Lebanon had lost. By executing a high-risk, high-visibility visit with professionalism and unity, Lebanon demonstrated to international partners that it can meet diplomatic expectations despite internal and regional crises.
Lebanon also proved its humanity. It did not hide its fragility or mask the depth of its pain; instead, it welcomed Pope Leo XIV, and the world, with honesty and dignity. In doing so, Lebanon sent a powerful diplomatic message to the international community: that vulnerability is not weakness, and that a country can be both wounded and willing to lead in the search for peace.
An Era for Survivors First?
Survivors were the moral foundation of this visit. Pope Leo XIV met every Lebanese as a survivor with integrity—the youth who shared their experiences of the ongoing war, mental health patients and workers who have continued to provide care despite economic collapse, or a family still grieving the victims of the Beirut port explosion who have seen no justice or accountability.
He invited all Lebanese citizens to embrace their resilience, a term that many Lebanese have grown allergic to after years of being asked to endure crises without reform. Pope Leo XIV reframed the power of resilience as an indispensable force of peace-builders and invited the Lebanese to embrace their natural capacity to mediate and lead peace. By centering survivor experiences and truths, Lebanon got to look itself in the mirror and reflect.
A New Way Forward?
Before departing from Beirut International Airport, Pope Leo XIV said: “We are not leaving each other; rather, having met, we will move forward together.”
Lebanon emerged from this apostolic journey not simply with a moral victory, but with strategic opportunity and renewed global capital. It demonstrated that it can host, convene and safeguard dialogue at a time when pathways for peace in the Middle East have never been so fragile.
The question is no longer whether Lebanon can survive. It is whether regional and international actors are prepared to recognize and leverage Lebanon’s distinct comparative advantage: its local lived experiences of pluralism, civic infrastructure of co-existence and collective sense of moral authority. Any credible path to peace and reconciliation in Lebanon must begin with those who have borne the brunt of its failures and continue to carry its hope: the very survivors and citizens who inspired Pope Leo XIV to adopt the prospects of a peaceful future as his own mission, personally and through the Church.
This moment calls for a fundamental shift in how Lebanon is engaged. For too long, foreign policy toward Lebanon has defaulted to crisis buffering, mistrust and the denial of Lebanese agency. Pope Leo XIV revealed the limits of that approach and offered an alternative worthy of global re-consideration. When engaged in its full agency and humanity, Lebanon thrived and proved itself to its people and the world. The question now is whether the world is willing to meet Lebanon at its level of courage and capacity.
Lynn Zovighian is a philanthropist, humanitarian diplomat and founder of the Zovighian Public Office, partnering with communities facing genocide and crises in the Middle East and South Caucasus through research, culture and diplomacy. She is also co-founder of the Zovighian Partnership.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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