Pope visits Istanbul’s Blue Mosque for meeting with Turkish religious leaders

Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Saturday on the second day of his trip to Turkey and stressed the need for Christian unity in meetings and liturgies with the country’s Christian leaders.

Leo was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim majority. Leo did not pray at the mosque despite an invitation by an imam. Speaking to reporters after the visit, Asgin Tunca said he had told the pope that the mosque was “Allah’s house.”

“It’s not my house, not your house, (it’s the) house of Allah,” he said. He said he told Leo: “‘If you want, you can worship here,’ I said. But he said, ‘That’s OK.'”

“He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel (the) atmosphere of the mosque, I think. And was very pleased,” he said.

After the mosque visit, Leo met with Turkey’s Christian leaders at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem.

This is the pope’s first foreign trip. He will also visit Lebanon.

Leo, history’s first American pope, is expected to speak in broader terms about peace in the Middle East.

Papal visits to Blue Mosque often raise questions

Other visits have always raised questions about whether the pope would pray in the Muslim house of worship, or at the very least pause to gather thoughts in a meditative silence.

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Turkey in 2006, tensions were high because Benedict had offended many in the Muslim world a few months earlier with a speech in Regensburg, Germany that was widely interpreted as linking Islam and violence.

The Vatican added a visit to the Blue Mosque at the last minute in a bid to reach out to Muslims, and Benedict was warmly welcomed. He observed a moment of silent prayer, head bowed, as the imam prayed next to him, facing east.

Benedict later thanked him “for this moment of prayer” for what was only the second time a pope had visited a mosque, after St. John Paul II visited one briefly in Syria in 2001.

There were no doubts in 2014 when Pope Francis visited the Blue Mosque: He stood for two minutes of silent prayer facing east, his head bowed, eyes closed and hands clasped in front of him. The Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, told the pope afterwards, “May God accept it.”

The pope’s planned itinerary and the Vatican spokesman had said in advance of the trip that Leo would pause for a prayer as his predecessors had done in the towering 17th-century mosque. But Leo merely toured the mosque.

The Vatican had initially reported the visit went ahead as foreseen. But it subsequently revised the record to say he visited “in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”

There were other changes to the mosque visit, as well.

The Vatican had initially said the head of the Diyanet religious affairs directorate would welcome Leo at the mosque. But the director, Safi Arpagus, wasn’t there, and a spokesman for the Diyanet said Arpagus hadn’t been expected, noting that he met with Leo upon his arrival Thursday in Ankara.

The Vatican didn’t explain the discrepancy. Leo was welcomed instead by the Turkish culture and tourism minister and several imams.

Pope Leo prays at the church of the leader of Orthodox Christians

Pope Leo XIV did pray at the patriarchal church in Istanbul of the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians in another gesture of unity.

In the elaborate Church of St. George, Leo attended the doxology alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The doxology is a short hymn of praise and glory to God that is sung by Christians.

Leo said he was certain the “encounter will also help to strengthen the bonds of our friendship.”

Eastern and Western churches split in the Great Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope. Leo and popes before him have vowed to work to unite Christians again.

Bartholomew, for his part, noted the significance that Leo chose to open his pontificate with his visit to Turkey.

The main reason of the visit was to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the unprecedented gathering of bishops that produced a creed, or proclamation of faith, that is still recited by millions of Christians today.

Hagia Sophia left off itinerary

Past popes have also visited the nearby Hagia Sophia landmark, once one of the most important historic cathedrals in Christianity and a United Nations-designated world heritage site.

But Leo left that visit off his itinerary on his first trip as pope. In July 2020, Turkey converted Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque, a move that drew widespread international criticism, including from the Vatican.

After the mosque visit, Leo held a private meeting with Turkey’s Christian leaders at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. In the afternoon, he was expected to pray with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, at the patriarchal church of Saint George.

There, they were to sign a joint statement. The Vatican said in his remarks to the patriarchs gathered, Leo reminded them “that division among Christians is an obstacle to their witness.”

He pointed to the next Holy Year to be celebrated by Christians, in 2033 on the anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion, and invited them to go to Jerusalem on “a journey that leads to full unity.”

Leo will end the day with a Catholic Mass in Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena for the country’s Catholic community, who number 33,000 in a country of more than 85 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim. Crowds of devout Catholics braved pouring rain and tight security measures for the event. 

Maria Banasik waited for her friends at a cafe near the arena, four hours ahead of the scheduled Mass, saying they were excited to be part of Leo’s first overseas visit.

“In the global situation now, his visit is of great importance,” said Banasik, a Polish national who lives in Ankara.

The Airbus software update doesn’t spare pope

While Leo was focusing on bolstering relations with Orthodox Christians and Muslims, trip organizers were dealing with more mundane issues.

Leo’s ITA Airways Airbus A320neo charter was among those caught up in the worldwide Airbus software update, ordered by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. The order came after an analysis found the computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in the altitude of a JetBlue plane last month.

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said Saturday that ITA was working on the issue. He said the necessary component to update the aircraft was on its way to Istanbul along with the technician who would install it.

Leo is scheduled to fly from Istanbul to Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon for the second leg of his inaugural trip as pope. 

Lebanon increased security measures ahead of his visit. The Interior Ministry said in a statement Saturday that trucks will be banned from entering the capital, Beirut, and the governorate of Mount Lebanon as of Sunday morning until Tuesday night. Trucks delivering food, water and fuel tankers as well as garbage trucks, will be excluded from the ban. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Michel Menassa issued an order banning anyone from carrying weapons in the same areas as of midnight Saturday for three days.

In a statement Saturday, Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah welcomed the pontiff’s trip to the crisis-hit nation, saying the group is committed to the country’s religious coexistence, democratic accord and preserving its security. Hezbollah is allied with several Christian groups in the country, including the Free Patriotic Movement and Marada Movement.