Pope Leo XIV visits “De La Croix” Hospital in Lebanon, praises staff and patients, and calls society to reject “false myths of wellbeing” and care for the poor.
Newsroom (02/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) On the final day of his six-day apostolic journey to Türkiye and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV made an emotional stop at the “De La Croix” Hospital in Jal ed Dib, greeting patients, staff, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross who have cared for the sick and poor here for over a century.
Speaking in a ward filled with patients and healthcare workers, the Pontiff began with warm greetings in Arabic – “Ṣabāḥ al-khayr” (Good morning) and “Shukrán” (Thank you) – before praising the hospital as a place where “Jesus dwells” both in those who suffer and in those who serve them.
Founded by Blessed Jacques Ghazir Haddad (known in Arabic as Père Yaacuba), a 19th-century priest beatified for his lifelong devotion to the poorest, the hospital remains a beacon of Christian charity in a country still reeling from years of economic collapse and the 2020 Beirut port explosion. The Franciscan Sisters of the Cross he established continue his mission today under often difficult conditions.
“Thank you, dear Sisters, for the work you carry out with such joy and dedication,” the Pope told the nuns. He extended gratitude to doctors, nurses, and all staff, calling them “like the Good Samaritan” who stops to bind wounds. Acknowledging the fatigue many feel amid Lebanon’s ongoing crises, he urged them never to lose “the joy of this mission” and to keep before their eyes “the good you are able to accomplish.”
Turning to the patients – many of them elderly, chronically ill, or unable to afford care elsewhere – Leo XIV offered words of consolation: “You are close to the heart of God our Father. He holds you in the palm of his hand… To each of you, the Lord says again today: I love you, I care for you, you are my child.”
The Pope framed the hospital’s witness as a challenge to Lebanon and the wider world. “We cannot conceive of a society that races ahead at full speed clinging to the false myths of wellbeing, while ignoring so many situations of poverty and vulnerability,” he said, quoting his recent apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te: “On the wounded faces of the poor, we see the suffering of the innocent and, therefore, the suffering of Christ himself.”
After a moving hymn of hope performed by the hospital choir, the Holy Father concluded with a blessing in Arabic: “Allah ma‘akum” (May God be with you).
The brief but intense visit – the last public event of a journey that also marked the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in Iznik, Türkiye – underscored Pope Leo XIV’s repeated call for solidarity with the suffering and his conviction that authentic Christian faith is measured by care for the least.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican.va
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