BEIRUT, Lebanon — Tens of thousands of people gathered in the Lebanese capital to witness Pope Leo’s message of unity to a shattered city and a fractured state.

Leo's final event for the day was a Catholic Mass in Istanbul's Volkswagen Arena for the country's Catholic community, who make up 33,000 in a country of more than 85 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.

People Leo XIV concluded his historic trip to the Middle East with a mass attended by 150,000 worshippers on the Beirut waterfront where five years ago, a massive chemical explosion killed more than 200 people.

The pope celebrated Mass with some 5,000 people, many foreign-born Catholics, in an intimate Istanbul arena on Nov. 29, his last full day in Turkey.