Pope Francis to visit Lebanon in June during economic crisis

Pope Francis to visit Lebanon in June during economic crisis

Pope Francis will visit Lebanon in June, the president's office has said, in an apparent show of support for the country experiencing an unprecedented economic meltdown.

Francis has held special prayers for Lebanon and has repeatedly said he plans to visit the small country since the economic meltdown began in October 2019.

The announcement about the visit came two days after Francis said he was still working on arranging a meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, despite that leader's seeming justification for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Francis said he wouldn't rule out traveling to Ukraine if it would help.

Speaking to reporters while returning home from Malta on Sunday, Francis said he and Patriarch Kirill were considering a possible location in the Middle East. It was not immediately clear if their meeting will be held in Lebanon.

The two religious leader spoke by video on March 16. The call was all the more remarkable because Francis and Kirill have only met once — at the Havana airport in 2016 — in what was then the first encounter between a pope and Russian patriarch in over 1,000 years.

Francis' trip will be the first visit by a Pope to the Mediterranean nation since