Pope Leo XIV left for his first foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon on Thursday, arriving in Ankara at 12:22 pm (0922 GMT) for the first leg of his trip.
A military guard of honor was present to welcome the Pope at Ankara’s Esenboga Airport. He was welcomed by Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy as well as other Turkish officials and senior church figures.
Pope described the visit as a ‘historic moment’
The visit is being seen as an opportunity to strengthen relations between people of Christian and Muslim religions.
“I was looking forward to this visit very much because of what it means for Christians, but it is also a great message for the whole world,” Leo told reporters traveling with him on his plane ahead of his arrival in Ankara. He described it as a “historic moment”.
The primary focus is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea – the first ecumenical council of Christianity that created the Nicene Creed – which is still used by most Christians in the world today.
“This is a very important visit because we don’t yet know a lot about Leo’s geopolitical views, and this is the first big chance for him to articulate them,” Massimo Fagioli, an Italian academic who tracks the Vatican, told Reuters news agency.
What’s on Pope Leo’s itinerary?
Pope Leo’s first stop will be at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the Republic of Türkiye based on secular values in 1923.
After this the Pope is expected to reach the Presidential Palace in Ankara, where he is to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Leo will then travel to Istanbul to see the Blue Mosque and, according to Vatican News, he will spend the rest of his time in Turkey.
Imam Asgin Tunca of the Blue Mosque, who received the Pope, said the visit would help Christian-Muslim relations and remove prejudices about Islam.
Tunca said, “We want to reflect that image by showing the beauty of our religion through our hospitality, it is God’s order.”
The Pope will not visit the historic Hagia Sophia monument in Istanbul as previous Popes have done.
The Hagia Sophia – once a symbol of secular Turkey and formerly a 6th-century Christian church during the Byzantine Empire and then a museum under Ataturk – was converted into a mosque by Erdogan’s government.
The Pope keeps visiting over the years
Both Türkiye and Lebanon have had several popes, starting with Pope Paul VI, who was the first to visit abroad in 1964.
Pope Francis had tried to visit Lebanon for years, but the country’s instability and his health issues prevented his visit.
Monsignor Cesar Essayen, Beirut’s apostolic vicar for Latin rite Catholics, said Lebanon was the safest place in the region for Leo to visit and the perfect place for him to speak about peace.
Security is expected to remain tight as regional conflicts continue. Israel carried out strikes in Beirut on Sunday, killing Hezbollah’s chief of staff and four others.
Edited by: Shawn Sinico