BEIRUT (AP) — Mireille Khoury lit a candle next to a portrait of her late son, Elias, surrounded by images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, just as she does every evening when she returns to her Beirut apartment after work.

Elias was only 15 when he died in the August 2020 explosion at the Beirut port that blasted through surrounding neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital. Since then Khoury has been among the families who have convened monthly protests calling for justice for the 218 people killed when hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate detonated.

Their numbers have dwindled as the investigation has stalled and hopes of accountability have faded. But the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV to Lebanon has rekindled a glimmer of hope for Khoury and many others in the small, cris

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