Pope Francis warned Wednesday that Lebanon faced "extreme danger that threatens the very existence of the country" following the massive Aug. 4 Beirut Port explosion.
The leader of the Catholic Church focused on the disaster-hit country after the blast ripped through the capital Beirut, killing more than 180 people and wounding at least 6,500.
"Lebanon cannot be abandoned to its solitude," the pope said at his first limited audience with the public in six months because of the coronavirus crisis.
"A month after the tragedy... my thoughts are still with dear Lebanon and its particularly hard-pressed population," Francis said, holding a Lebanese flag brought to the audience by Georges Breidi, a young priest.
"Faced with the repeated tragedies that each of the inhabitants of this land knows, we realize the extreme danger that threatens the very existence of this country," he said.
The pontiff held his first audience in a closed courtyard of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, with a maximum of 500 faithful.
He last held an audience with a public crowd in early March. After that, the coronavirus pandemic forced him to hold virtual audiences transmitted from the official papal library over television or the internet, an experience he described as akin to being "caged.”
On Wednesday Francis simply exchanged a few words with those present, all wearing face masks.
He announced that Friday, Sept. 4 would be a day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon and that he was sending his Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin - the number two in the Vatican hierarchy - to Beirut on that day to represent him.
