Pope Leo's Lebanon visit sparks rare road repairs after decades of neglect by authorities

As workers rushed to complete road paving in the Lebanese town of Annaya last week, resident Roger Abboud watched with mixed emotions. The road leading to the shrine of Saint Charbel, untouched for over 50 years, was finally being repaired—not for townspeople who traverse it daily, but for Pope Leo XIV's upcoming visit.

"This is the first time the road has been repaved in more than 50 years," said Abboud, who owns shops along the route. "We're grateful for the Pope's visit—his face brings goodness to Lebanon and the region. But we hope the work continues with the same quality and integrity."

Pope Leo XIV arrives in Lebanon on 30 November for a three-day visit under the theme, "Blessed are the peacemakers," his first trip outside the Vatican. The visit comes as Lebanon grapples with an ongoing financial crisis, political paralysis, and continued Israeli attacks on its southern and eastern regions.

Yet, authorities have managed to complete infrastructure work that had languished for decades in weeks—a pace that has sparked both hope and cynicism among Lebanese citizens.

The accelerated repairs have revived what Lebanese call "electoral asphalt"—a practice in which politicians rush infrastructure projects before elections to secure votes, only for the hastily completed work to deteriorate rapidly. Lebanon's next parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2026.

"This phenomenon depends on delaying vital services like roads, water, and waste management to use them as obvious bargaining tools before elections," explained a citizen who preferred to remain anonymous. "MPs and local figures pressure the Ministry of Public Works to implement projects in their areas, turning public services into what resembles electoral bribes rather than sustainable, transparent local development."

Some roads paved in other Lebanese areas within the government's 'Putting Lebanon Back on Track' project are already showing cracks. In at least one location visited by journalists last week, workers had begun repaving a road completed just days earlier after holes appeared in the fresh asphalt.

Mahmoud al-Hajjar, head of the maintenance department at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, told The New Arab: "These are large and extensive works with a total budget of $7 million. Of this, $3.5 million is for road works designated for the Pope's route, while the remaining amount was allocated to the Council for Development and Reconstruction to complete other works—roads within the route in Jounieh, Harissa, Jal el-Dib, Deir al-Salib, and the waterfront area in Beirut. This includes road rehabilitation work, but this road toward Bkerke that we're standing on now is the only one that adopts traffic safety standards, including road markings, installing reflective cat's eyes, and solar-powered lighting."

The work also includes planting flowers in road medians, repairing pavements, and repairing retaining walls.

Pope Leo XIV's visit marks the fourth time a pontiff has travelled to Lebanon. Pope Paul VI made a brief visit in 1964, Pope John Paul II came in 1997, and Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2012. Pope Francis had planned multiple visits before his death in May 2025.

The 81-year-old pontiff will stop in Turkey first on 27 November to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. His Lebanese itinerary includes celebrating Mass at Beirut's waterfront for an expected 100,000 attendees, visiting Saint Charbel's hermitage in Annaya, and meeting patients at Deir al-Salib Hospital. At the Basilica of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, he will meet with bishops, priests, consecrated persons and pastoral workers. In the square in front of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch in Bkerké, Pope Leo will meet with young people of Lebanon.

First Lady Naamat Aoun, who heads the national coordination committee for the visit, told journalists the Pope's presence "carries a message of hope and confidence in Lebanon's ability to rise from its crises."

Residents welcome improvements, question priorities

In Annaya, where Pope Leo will visit Saint Charbel's hermitage cave, where the saint lived in seclusion for his final 23 years, residents expressed gratitude mixed with frustration over decades of governmental neglect.

"The Pope's visit means so much to all of Lebanon, but especially to Annaya, since he's the first pope to visit here," said Jean-Claude Abi Sleiman, one of Annaya's mukhtars (local officials). "The visit accelerated ongoing work, particularly since Annaya's road attracts many faithfuls from around the world but hasn't been repaired or lit in a very long time."

Father Fadi al-Mir, representative of Our Lady of Lebanon Basilica in Harissa and member of the Pope's reception committee, said they're preparing the basilica to accommodate approximately 2,800 participants, including patriarchs, bishops, priests, monks and nuns.

"We hoped to receive Pope Francis, but Pope Leo XIV decided Lebanon would be his first visit, under the theme of 'justice, peace, and reconciliation among peoples,'" al-Mir said.

At Deir al-Salib Hospital, where the Pope will visit patients, engineer Abdou Qorbani, who has worked with the monastery's nuns for 20 years, described the moment as divinely ordained.

"The Pope, representing Jesus Christ, will meet the face of Jesus—meaning the patients," Qorbani said. "This place is a piece of heaven, housing about 1,000 people from all of Lebanon's sects. No one asks another about their religion, because Father Jacques al-Kabouchi, founder of the Holy Cross, said: 'Be the spring, and the spring doesn't ask about religion or sect.' The nuns here give water to all."

Jounieh Mayor Faissal Efram thanked the Minister of Public Works "for completing this work on a road we'd forgotten about, since more than 20 years passed without rehabilitation. It was rehabilitated in record time—less than 20 days—with solar lighting and road markings."

The rapid transformation has left Lebanese citizens wondering: if such comprehensive infrastructure work can be completed in weeks for a visiting dignitary, why has it taken decades to provide the same basic services to those who live here year-round?

This article is published in collaboration with Egab.