Pope Leo XIV Stands at Beirut Blast Ground Zero, Calls for Justice for 218 Victims
Pope Leo XIV weeps with families at site of Lebanon’s worst disaster.
On the final day of his historic first foreign journey, Pope Leo XIV stood in solemn silence at the epicentre of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, surrounded by twisted metal, burned-out vehicles, and the towering, half-collapsed grain silo that absorbed the blast’s fury and saved countless more lives on that fateful 4 August afternoon.
One by one, relatives of the 218 victims approached the pontiff, holding aloft photographs of sons, daughters, parents, and siblings lost when hundreds of tonnes of neglected ammonium nitrate detonated in the heart of the capital. The American pope grasped their hands, listened to their stories, and offered quiet blessings, visibly moved as the raw grief of five years without justice poured out before him.
Cecile Roukoz, whose brother was killed, told reporters the papal visit sent an unmistakable message: “This explosion was a crime.” Mireille Khoury, whose 15-year-old son Elias died in their apartment across from the port, pointed to the building still bearing scars of the shockwave and insisted that Lebanon cannot heal until the political, security, and judicial officials implicated in the obstructed investigation face trial.
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Earlier Tuesday, Pope Leo visited De La Croix psychiatric hospital, where children dressed as Swiss Guards and cardinals greeted him with joy. He warned against a world obsessed with progress that discards the mentally ill and marginalised, praising the facility as a living testament to human dignity and a rebuke to societies that abandon their most vulnerable citizens.
The Beirut pilgrimage marked the emotional climax of a trip repeatedly delayed under Pope Francis due to Lebanon’s cascading crises. For a nation battered by economic collapse, the aftermath of war with Israel, and the lingering wound of the port catastrophe, the pope’s presence amid the ruins offered both consolation and a global spotlight on the families’ unrelenting demand for accountability and truth.
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