FLORENCE, Italy — Lebanon's top Catholic leader says a much anticipated visit from Pope Francis will help keep "hope alive" after years of political and economic upheaval have brought the once bustling Middle Eastern country to the brink of collapse. 

But when Pope Francis arrives in the country — possibly even later this year — he will not come as "political or economic savior," says the Maronite Catholic patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Rai, but "as one man close to the people."

"He knows that sometimes the human person needs someone who is close, someone who listens to them, someone who can understand their problems," Rai said during an interview on Feb. 26. "The Lebanese on the margins count on it a lot because they feel abandoned."
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