SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Pope Leo XIV visits Lebanon next week as part of his first papal trip to the Middle East. War between Israel and the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah has taken its heaviest toll in the south of the country, including on ancient Christian lands. Correspondent Jane Arraf visited one village where residents say they feel abandoned by the state and some even by the church.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (Singing in non-English language).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: There's still scaffolding around the new tower of Our Lady Catholic Church in Aalma ash-Shaab (ph). It was rebuilt after being destroyed in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Now at Mass, it once again broadcasts hymns. But there aren't a lot of residents around to hear them. The village normally has 600 people here in winter, more in the summer. Now there are about 350.
CHADI SAYAH: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Mayor Chadi Sayah knows them all. He takes us on a tour, mostly of destruction. Israeli strikes during the war in 2023 and -24 destroyed the village's garbage truck, its ambulance and water tank, as well as hundreds of homes.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
ARRAF: We stand in the rubble of a huge destroyed house on one of the highest points of land.
SAYAH: (Non-English language spoken). Strategic spot. (Non-English language spoken) Israel.
ARRAF: Everywhere you look, in every direction, it's an incredible view. On one side, just over the hill is the Mediterranean and the Lebanese coast. And then if you turn around, you can actually see boats on the Mediterranean, off the Israeli city of Nahariyya. Everything is so close here.
But now separated by Israel's concrete wall between the two countries - and Israeli military posts less than a mile away. In the other direction are the bright blue waters of the bay of Naqoura.
SAYAH: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Here, heaven?
SAYAH: Yes. Look. With love, this is heaven.
ARRAF: People here saved for decades to build their homes, now destroyed. Sayah, a math teacher, says he gave private lessons for years to save money to build his.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
ARRAF: The rocky landscape is surprisingly fertile. There are olive trees, avocado, pomegranates, pine trees and palm trees. Sayah says the village has not received a lot of support, either from the state or from the church. If they want Christians to stay in this area, he says, they need to help. Sayah says Aalma ash-Shaab is the only purely Christian village left in the Tyre district of South Lebanon. They had wanted Pope Leo to come to see them here, where Christians have been most affected by the war. The Vatican felt it was too dangerous, according to Lebanese church officials. Instead, while the Pope is holding events mostly in North Lebanon, villagers will plant pine trees to replace those they say were cut down by Israel while it occupied the village.
SAYAH: They cut this tree and similar ones, but we will plant another one.
ARRAF: In his office near the church, Sayah reads a letter he has sent to the visiting Pope to try to persuade him to come.
SAYAH: Your Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, I write to you from Aalma ash-Shaab, a small Christian village on the southern border of Lebanon, a land once walked upon and blessed by our Lord Jesus, and a community that has carried the Christian faith for centuries. Today, Aalma ash-Shaab is a devastated border village.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: (Singing in non-English language).
ARRAF: Half an hour away in Cana, where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine, Christians are a small minority now. At dusk, the call to prayer echoes from the village mosques. The gate is open to the hillside grotto, where Jesus and Mary are believed to have rested, but there are no visitors. Inside the cave are ceramic statues of the holy family and the stubs of a few candles, remnants of answered and unanswered prayers.
For NPR News, I'm Jane Arraf in Cana, South Lebanon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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