Beirut — Pope Leo XIV ended his first overseas papal trip with prayers at Beirut's devastated port and a Mass attended by an estimated 150,000 worshippers in a country desperate for signs of hope amid fear of renewed war.

The pope said prayers at the site of the blast, which ripped through Beirut's downtown district five years ago after a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate exploded — a devastating event attributed to negligence and government dysfunction. No senior official has been convicted in the attack, which caused billions of dollars of damage to an already collapsed economy.

The pope lit a candle in front of a memorial engraved with the names of more than 200 people killed in the explosion and met with relatives, some who carried framed photos of their lost loved ones.

The scorch

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