By Isabella H. de Carvalho – Bkerké
“After these hardships in our country, the Pope is here to give us a new kind of peace and joy, to make us feel seen, it’s like when a big brother visits his younger brother.”
This is how Ralph Sarkis, 24 years old, described Pope Leo XIV’s meeting on Monday, Dec 1, with 15,000 young people in the square in front of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch in Bkerké, close to Beirut.
The atmosphere was like a small World Youth Day as the square and the surrounding spaces were filled to the brim with excited young people sporting scarves with the papal visit’s logo and waving Lebanese and Holy See flags.
They had come from all over Lebanon and cheered, danced and clapped as they waited for the Pope to offer them encouraging words, especially in the face of the various issues that the Land of the Cedars has faced in the last decades.
From the 2019 economic crisis to the 2020 explosion in the Port of Beirut, the COVID-19 pandemic and various conflicts, Lebanese young people have struggled to build their lives.
The young Christians at the event see these hardships clearly and are unanimous in saying that being a young person in Lebanon today is hard. However, they are unwavering in their desire to build a stable country and a better future, many drawing also from their faith to find hope and strength.
The inability to build a future
“The main hardships started in 2020 with the blast of Beirut, we lost a lot of our friends,” Ralph said. “Many of our friends have also left the country. For example, my brother left to find peace and stability.”
Despite his own doubts about whether he should leave, he ultimately decided to remain. “I believe that the plan of Jesus Christ was for me to stay. I feel like the Lord is advising me to stay and have my own mission here,” he continued.
“At this age, other young people are really working on themselves. For us, it’s harder because there is always something happening in the country, so whenever you make a plan, there is always something that will change it,” Janice Ghossoub, 24 years old, shared: “We have a lot more to worry about. Building for the future is very hard.”
But like Ralph, she doesn’t see herself anywhere else: “I love Lebanon, I love the spirit we have, I love my family, my friends. We are very social people, we love communities, we love our people a lot, so this is the main reason we stay,” she said.
Finding strength in faith
For them, their faith is an anchor in the face of these struggles that they have no control over, and the Pope’s visit strengthens this. “It’s important for us as Lebanese Christians to feel heard. Seeing the head of the Catholic Church visiting us is important,” Ralph explained. He encouraged all young people “in Lebanon and all over the world to seek the Lord, really seek him, he is the only hope you need.”
“Due to the economic crisis, many of our young people are losing their faith, but we are Lebanese, we are Christians, we are sons and daughters of God, with Him nothing is impossible,” shared instead Ralph Yammine, a member of the Lebanese scouts who was helping to organize the meeting. He insisted also that “all the people in Lebanon are in need of peace” and “Pope Leo is here to teach us this peace and we have the best example of peace, which is Jesus Christ.”
Marie-Lyne El Hayek, 25 years old, highlighted how hope also comes from having faith: “I always like it when we gather around Jesus with all the youth. It’s tough being a young person in Lebanon. It’s a great country, but it’s hard; you need a lot of faith to persist. The Pope’s presence here shows us that we should always have a strong faith because better days are coming.”
“The Pope’s visit is bringing a lot of hope because we’ve lost it recently a little bit,” Janice emphasized instead: “It’s nice to see everybody united. Even Muslims, not only Christians, see how they received him, how they celebrated his coming. It gives us a glimpse of hope of living together, all of us.” – Vatican News
