“The Future Is In Your Hands”: Pope Leo XIV’s Message To Lebanon’s Youth

In Bkirki’s squares, under the lights and the watching cameras, Pope Leo XIV chose to address one group above all: the youth. Opening in Arabic with the words “Peace be with you,” he thanked Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi and greeted the young people who had come from across Lebanon, Syria and Iraq to see him.

His message blended realism and hope. Lebanon’s history, he said, is rich with achievement and distinction, but also marked by “deep wounds that are difficult to heal.” Yet he insisted that the next chapter does not belong to past failures, but to the generation standing in front of him.

Hope In A Country Tired Of Crises

For Lebanese youth, the speech came against a heavy backdrop: economic collapse, political deadlock, waves of emigration and years of feeling that adults in power have failed them. Many young people feel caught between love for their homeland and the urge to leave in search of stability and opportunity.

Pope Leo did not deny the weight of these realities. But he insisted that they are not the final word. The testimonies he heard, he said, spoke “of hope and kindness despite the difficulties.” In other words: the fact that young people are still showing up, organizing, studying and building lives here is itself a sign of resilience.

“Kindness Is Capable Of Healing Wounds”

One of the most striking lines from the speech was simple: kindness and devotion, he said, have the power to heal wounds. In a region where politics and war often dominate the headlines, the word “kindness” can sound almost naïve. But in the Pope’s framing, it is anything but.

Kindness in this context does not mean passivity. It means choosing not to answer hurt with more hurt, not to let sectarian language define every interaction, and not to normalize humiliation and corruption as “just the way things are.”

When he told the youth that “the homeland will regain its youth,” he was pointing to something deeper: Lebanon’s renewal, he suggested, will not come only from political deals, but from a shift in how people treat each other in everyday life.

No Peace Without Justice — No Justice Without Forgiveness

Another key line from the Pope’s address captured a tension familiar to many in Lebanon: “Peace is not complete if it is the result of the interests of some individuals,” he said, adding that “there is no peace without justice and no justice without forgiveness.”

For a country still carrying unaddressed traumas from civil war, explosions and economic collapse, those words cut close to the bone. Calls for “moving on” without accountability have often felt like asking victims to be silent. At the same time, cycles of revenge and bitterness can trap societies for generations.

By linking justice and forgiveness, the Pope was pointing toward a difficult path: a Lebanon where wrongdoing is named and addressed, but where the goal is healing rather than endless punishment; a Lebanon where communities refuse both amnesia and hatred.

A Message To A Generation Thinking About Leaving

Many of the young people listening in Bkirki have already considered emigration. Some have relatives abroad, others have applied for visas or scholarships. For them, the idea that “the future is in your hands” may feel heavy: how can they rebuild a homeland while worrying about rent, jobs and basic services?

The Pope did not offer policy answers or economic plans. Instead, he offered something more symbolic but still powerful: recognition. He acknowledged their wounds, named their role, and suggested that they hold a historic opportunity to change the country’s direction.

Whether that opportunity becomes reality will depend not just on youth, but on leaders willing to make space for them in public life, protect their rights and support their initiatives rather than exploiting them.