Pope Leo XIV visits Istanbul’s Blue Mosque at start of day of meetings with Turkiye’s religious leaders

Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque connected Saturday (November 29, 2025) but didn't halt to pray, arsenic helium opened an aggravated time of meetings and liturgies with Turkiye’s spiritual leaders and a Mass for the country's tiny Catholic community.

The caput of Turkiye’s Diyanet spiritual affairs directorate showed Pope Leo the soaring tiled domes of the 17th-century mosque and the Arabic inscriptions connected its columns, arsenic Pope Leo nodded successful understanding.

The Vatican had said Leo would observe a “brief infinitesimal of soundless prayer” there, but it didn't look that helium had. The imam of the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said helium had invited Leo to pray, since the mosque was “Allah's house,” but the Pope declined.

Speaking to reporters aft the visit, Tunca said helium had told the Pope: "It’s not my house, not your house, (it’s the) location of Allah,” helium said. He said helium told Pope Leo: “'If you want, you tin worship here,’ I said. But helium said, ‘That’s OK.’”

“He wanted to spot the mosque, wanted to consciousness (the) ambiance of the mosque, I think. And was precise pleased,” helium said.

Later, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said: “The pope experienced his sojourn to the mosque successful silence, successful a tone of contemplation and listening, with heavy respect for the spot and the religion of those who stitchery determination successful prayer.”

Leo, history's archetypal American Pope, was pursuing successful the footsteps of his caller predecessors, who each made high-profile visits to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, arsenic it is officially known, successful a motion of respect to Turkiye’s Muslim majority. Leo removed his shoes and walked done the carpeted mosque successful his achromatic socks.

But the visits person ever raised questions astir whether the Pope would commune successful the Muslim location of worship, oregon astatine the precise slightest intermission to stitchery thoughts successful a meditative silence.

There were nary doubts successful 2014 erstwhile Pope Francis visited: He stood for 2 minutes of soundless supplication facing east, his caput bowed, eyes closed and hands clasped successful beforehand of him. The Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, told the Pope afterwards, “May God judge it.”

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Turkiye successful 2006, tensions were precocious due to the fact that Benedict had offended galore successful the Muslim satellite a fewer months earlier with a code successful Regensburg, Germany that was wide interpreted arsenic linking Islam and violence.

The Vatican added a sojourn to the Blue Mosque astatine the past infinitesimal successful a bid to scope retired to Muslims, and Pope Benedict was warmly welcomed. He observed a infinitesimal of soundless prayer, caput bowed, arsenic the imam prayed adjacent to him, facing east.

Pope Benedict aboriginal thanked him “for this infinitesimal of prayer" for what was lone the 2nd clip a pope had visited a mosque, aft St. John Paul II visited 1 concisely successful Syria successful 2001.

Past Popes person besides visited the adjacent Hagia Sophia landmark, erstwhile 1 of the astir important historical cathedrals successful Christianity and a United Nations-designated satellite practice site.

But Leo near that sojourn disconnected his itinerary connected his archetypal travel arsenic pope. In July 2020, Turkiye converted Hagia Sophia from a depository backmost into a mosque, a determination that drew wide planetary criticism, including from the Vatican.

After the mosque visit, Pope Leo held a backstage gathering with Turkiye’s Christian leaders astatine the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. In the afternoon, helium was expected to commune with the spiritual person of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, astatine the patriarchal religion of Saint George.

He volition extremity the time with a Catholic Mass successful Istanbul's Volkswagen Arena for the country's Catholic community, who fig 33,000 successful a state of much than 85 cardinal people, astir of whom are Sunni Muslim.

Pope Leo had prayed with these Christian leaders connected Friday successful Iznik, astatine the tract of the A.D. 325 Council of Nicaea, the item of his trip. The juncture was to people the 1,700th day of the council, the unprecedented gathering of bishops that produced the creed, oregon connection of faith, that is inactive recited by millions of Christians today.

Standing implicit the ruins of the site, the men recited the creed. Leo urged them “to flooded the ungraded of the divisions that unluckily inactive beryllium and to nurture the tendency for unity.”

Such unity, helium said, was of peculiar value astatine a clip “marked by galore tragic signs, successful which radical are subjected to countless threats to their precise dignity.”

The Nicaea gathering took spot astatine a clip erstwhile the Eastern and Western churches were inactive united. They divided successful the Great Schism of 1054, a disagreement precipitated mostly by disagreements implicit the primacy of the pope, and past successful different splintering divisions. But adjacent today, Catholic, Orthodox and astir historical Protestant groups judge the Nicaean Creed, making it a constituent of statement and the astir wide accepted creed successful Christendom.

As a result, celebrating its origins astatine the tract of its instauration with the spiritual leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox churches and different Christian representatives marked a historical infinitesimal successful the centuries-old quest to reunite each Christians.