Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Saturday on the second day of his journey to Turkey and pressured the necessity for Christian unity in conferences and liturgies with the nation’s Christian leaders.
Leo was following within the footsteps of his current predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim majority. Leo didn’t pray on the mosque regardless of an invite by an imam. Chatting with reporters after the go to, Asgin Tunca mentioned he had informed the pope that the mosque was “Allah’s home.”
“It is not my home, not your home, (it is the) home of Allah,” he mentioned. He mentioned he informed Leo: “‘If you would like, you’ll be able to worship right here,’ I mentioned. However he mentioned, ‘That is OK.'”
“He wished to see the mosque, wished to really feel (the) environment of the mosque, I believe. And was more than happy,” he mentioned.
Domenico Stinellis / AP
After the mosque go to, Leo met with Turkey’s Christian leaders on the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem.
That is the pope’s first overseas journey. He may also go to Lebanon.
Leo, historical past’s first American pope, is predicted to talk in broader phrases about peace within the Center East.
Papal visits to Blue Mosque usually elevate questions
Different visits have all the time raised questions on whether or not the pope would pray within the Muslim home of worship, or on the very least pause to collect ideas in a meditative silence.
When Pope Benedict XVI visited Turkey in 2006, tensions had been excessive as a result of Benedict had offended many within the Muslim world a couple of months earlier with a speech in Regensburg, Germany that was extensively interpreted as linking Islam and violence.
The Vatican added a go to to the Blue Mosque on the final minute in a bid to achieve out to Muslims, and Benedict was warmly welcomed. He noticed a second of silent prayer, head bowed, because the imam prayed subsequent to him, going through east.
AP Picture/Salih Zeki Fazlioglu 
Benedict later thanked him “for this second of prayer” for what was solely the second time a pope had visited a mosque, after St. John Paul II visited one briefly in Syria in 2001.
There have been no doubts in 2014 when Pope Francis visited the Blue Mosque: He stood for 2 minutes of silent prayer going through east, his head bowed, eyes closed and arms clasped in entrance of him. The Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, informed the pope afterwards, “Could God settle for it.”
FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Pictures 
The pope’s deliberate itinerary and the Vatican spokesman had mentioned prematurely of the journey that Leo would pause for a prayer as his predecessors had performed within the towering Seventeenth-century mosque. However Leo merely toured the mosque.
The Vatican had initially reported the go to went forward as foreseen. But it surely subsequently revised the report to say he visited “in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the religion of those that collect there in prayer.”
There have been different modifications to the mosque go to, as properly.
The Vatican had initially mentioned the top of the Diyanet spiritual affairs directorate would welcome Leo on the mosque. However the director, Safi Arpagus, wasn’t there, and a spokesman for the Diyanet mentioned Arpagus hadn’t been anticipated, noting that he met with Leo upon his arrival Thursday in Ankara.
The Vatican did not clarify the discrepancy. Leo was welcomed as a substitute by the Turkish tradition and tourism minister and a number of other imams.
Pope Leo prays on the church of the chief of Orthodox Christians
Pope Leo XIV did pray on the patriarchal church in Istanbul of the religious chief of the world’s Orthodox Christians in one other gesture of unity.
Within the elaborate Church of St. George, Leo attended the doxology alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The doxology is a brief hymn of reward and glory to God that’s sung by Christians.
Leo mentioned he was sure the “encounter may also assist to strengthen the bonds of our friendship.”
Japanese and Western church buildings break up within the Nice Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope. Leo and popes earlier than him have vowed to work to unite Christians once more.
Bartholomew, for his half, famous the importance that Leo selected to open his hold forth together with his go to to Turkey.
The principle purpose of the go to was to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the unprecedented gathering of bishops that produced a creed, or proclamation of religion, that’s nonetheless recited by hundreds of thousands of Christians right this moment.
Hagia Sophia left off itinerary
Previous popes have additionally visited the close by Hagia Sophia landmark, as soon as probably the most essential historic cathedrals in Christianity and a United Nations-designated world heritage website.
However Leo left that go to off his itinerary on his first journey as pope. In July 2020, Turkey transformed Hagia Sophia from a museum again right into a mosque, a transfer that drew widespread worldwide criticism, together with from the Vatican.
After the mosque go to, Leo held a personal assembly with Turkey’s Christian leaders on the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. Within the afternoon, he was anticipated to hope with the religious chief of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, on the patriarchal church of Saint George.
There, they had been to signal a joint assertion. The Vatican mentioned in his remarks to the patriarchs gathered, Leo reminded them “that division amongst Christians is an impediment to their witness.”
Emrah Gurel / AP 
He pointed to the subsequent Holy 12 months 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 results in full unity.”
Leo will finish the day with a Catholic Mass in Istanbul’s Volkswagen Enviornment for the nation’s Catholic neighborhood, who quantity 33,000 in a rustic of greater than 85 million folks, most of whom are Sunni Muslim. Crowds of religious Catholics braved pouring rain and tight safety measures for the occasion.
Maria Banasik waited for her pals at a restaurant close to the world, 4 hours forward of the scheduled Mass, saying they had been excited to be a part of Leo’s first abroad go to.
“Within the international scenario now, his go to is of nice significance,” mentioned Banasik, a Polish nationwide who lives in Ankara.
The Airbus software program replace would not spare pope
Whereas Leo was specializing in bolstering relations with Orthodox Christians and Muslims, journey organizers had been coping with extra mundane points.
Leo’s ITA Airways Airbus A320neo constitution was amongst these caught up within the worldwide Airbus software program replace, ordered by the European Union Aviation Security Company. The order got here after an evaluation discovered the pc code might have contributed to a sudden drop within the altitude of a JetBlue airplane final month.
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, mentioned Saturday that ITA was engaged on the difficulty. He mentioned the required element to replace the plane was on its option to Istanbul together with the technician who would set up it.
Leo is scheduled to fly from Istanbul to Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon for the second leg of his inaugural journey as pope.
Lebanon elevated safety measures forward of his go to. The Inside Ministry mentioned in an announcement Saturday that vans will probably be banned from getting into the capital, Beirut, and the governorate of Mount Lebanon as of Sunday morning till Tuesday evening. Vehicles delivering meals, water and gas tankers in addition to rubbish vans, will probably be excluded from the ban. In the meantime, Protection Minister Michel Menassa issued an order banning anybody from carrying weapons in the identical areas as of midnight Saturday for 3 days.
In an announcement Saturday, Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah welcomed the pontiff’s journey to the crisis-hit nation, saying the group is dedicated to the nation’s spiritual coexistence, democratic accord and preserving its safety. Hezbollah is allied with a number of Christian teams within the nation, together with the Free Patriotic Motion and Marada Motion.
