Pope Leo XIV begins Lebanon visit amid economic crisis, heightened security concerns

Pope Leo XIV arrives in Lebanon for the second half of his first international trip after visiting Turkey, meeting with political leaders and visiting the Port of Beirut explosion site.

Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.

Lebanon was once a Christian-majority country, a balance reflected in the 1932 census that recorded Christians as just over half the population. No official count has been conducted since, but demographic studies and independent estimates show a significant shift over the past century. As Reuters reported, Christians are now "believed to make up roughly a third of Lebanon’s population," a decline driven by emigration, conflict, and changing birth rates.