Pope Leo XIV concludes first day of his apostolic visit to Lebanon to the Monastery of the Carmelite Sisters of the Theotokos in Harissa

Pope Leo XIV concluded the first day of his apostolic visit to Lebanon with a vist to the Monastery of the Carmelite Sisters of the Theotokos in Harissa.

“Get thee to a nunnery, go. Farewell.”
Hamlet to Ophelia.
Hamlet, Act 3, scene one.

Not the same context. Kidding.

I respect nuns for devoting their lives to good work in an unselfish manner.

I’ve always liked caramelites.

There is a Lebanese restaurant in Orlando (not the part where tourists go but not the part to avoid), been there for decades. The family owners are wonderful Christians. When I taught in Orlando back when I had hair and was thinner, wife would come along so we could date there, and the dates there were good too.

The pope is considered the direct successor of the Apostle Peter, to whom Christ said, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17) and “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:19).

When the pope travels outside Rome to teach, celebrate the sacraments, encourage the local churches, and meet civil leaders, he is exercising the same apostolic ministry that Peter and the other apostles carried out in the early Church.

In modern Vatican communications, virtually every trip abroad is called an “apostolic visit” or “apostolic journey,” even when it has a strong diplomatic component (such as Pope Leo XIV’s recent trip to Turkey and Lebanon).

The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church (currently Pope Tawadros II) very frequently uses the exact phrase “apostolic visit” (الزيارة الرسولية / al-ziyara al-rasūliyya) for his pastoral trips inside or outside Egypt.
The reason is the same theological root as in the Catholic Church: the Pope of Alexandria considers himself the successor of St. Mark the Apostle (the evangelist who founded the Church of Alexandria).
So when he visits a diocese, a monastery, or travels abroad to meet his faithful, the Coptic Synod and media routinely call it an “apostolic visit.” Example: Pope Tawadros II’s 2023 trip to the United States was officially described as an “apostolic visit to the Coptic diaspora.”

Pope Leo I didn’t transform, the See of Rome was the highest earthly authority of God’s Church since the 60s AD. We have it in the letters of Pope Clement (the 4th Pope) from the 70s AD.

Leo I defended the primacy that Nicaea (325) and Sardica (343) had already recognised, that St Cyprian and St Augustine took for granted, and that the Eastern bishops at Chalcedon (451) themselves acclaimed with the cry “Peter has spoken through Leo!”

So if anything, Leo the Great would be relieved—not proud—that 1600 years later Catholics are still saying the same thing Catholics were saying that they were saying 300 years before his time.

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