Pope Leo XIV’s first foreign trip, to Turkey and Lebanon, will be packed with opportunities to advance relations with two of the Catholic Church’s top priorities: Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
It will also give history’s first American pope the spotlight to speak in broader terms about peace in the Middle East in languages much of the world can understand: He’ll speak exclusively in English while in Turkey, and a combination of English and French in Lebanon, in a departure from the Vatican’s traditional lingua franca of Italian.
Security will be tight, especially after Israel fired a strike in Beirut to target Hezbollah, just days before Leo arrives.
Here’s a look at some of the expected highlights of the Nov. 27-Dec. 2 visit to two countries that the late Pope Francis had intended to visit but couldn’t as his health deteriorated.
Lebanon and Turkey are frequent pope destinations
Both Turkey and Lebanon have received multiple popes, starting with Pope Paul VI, the first pontiff to travel internationally, in a sign of their importance to the Holy See.
For the Vatican, Lebanon and its tradition of religious tolerance in the Middle East is a bulwark for Christians in the region, even more so after years of conflict and war that have shrunk Christian communities that date from the time of the Apostles.
Turkey, for its part, is home to the ecumenical patriarch of the Orthodox Church, and so is a crucial relationship to nurture in the centuries-long quest for Christian unity.
Turkey is a rare country that, with Leo’s visit, can boast of having been visited by the five popes of the modern globe-trotting papacy: Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979 in one of the first trips of his pontificate, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.
Paul VI also visited Lebanon during a stopover en route to India in 1964, John Paul II visited Lebanon in 1997 and Benedict XVI in 2012, in the final foreign trip of his pontificate. Francis had tried for years to go, but the country’s instability and then Francis’ poor health precluded a visit.
Orthodox relations
Leo’s main reason for traveling to Turkey, the first stop, is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.
Leo will pray with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, at the site of the 325 AD gathering, today’s Iznik in northwestern Turkey, and sign a joint declaration in a visible sign of Christian unity.
Eastern and Western churches were united until the Great Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope.
The Rev. Paolo Pugliese, superior of the Capuchin Catholic friars in Turkey, said the commemoration of the Council of Nicaea – which gave birth to the creed still recited by Christians today – would send a powerful message of unity.
“What better occasion than Nicaea to find again our common identity,” he said.
Interfaith dialogue and the plight of Palestinians
Leo will also visit the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and preside over an interfaith meeting in both Istanbul and in Beirut. Significantly, he will not visit the landmark Hagia Sophia monument in Istanbul as previous popes have done.
In July 2020, Turkey converted Hagia Sophia — once one of the most important historic cathedrals in Christianity and a United Nations-designated world heritage site — from a museum back into a mosque, a move that drew widespread international criticism. At the time, Francis said he was “deeply pained” by the decision.
Clergy in the region say the Vatican’s strong support for Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, first under Francis and now Leo, has bolstered the church’s credibility among Muslims.
Security though is expected to be tight, as the regional conflicts have not abated. Israel fired an airstrike on Lebanon’s capital on Sunday that killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff and four others.
Leo said this week such attacks were “always a concern,” but he appealed for all to pursue dialogue, not violence.
Monsignor César Essayan, the apostolic vicar of Beirut for Latin rite Catholics, said Lebanon was the safest place in the region for Leo to visit and a perfect place for him to speak about peace.
“He couldn’t go to Gaza. It’s useless to go to Israel now. It’s too difficult in Syria. This is the only country,” he said of Lebanon. “And here offers him the singularity and this vocation that will allow him to go with a very strong message (of peace) for the whole world.”
The Beirut port blast
The highlight of the Lebanese visit will come on Leo’s last day, Dec. 2, when he spends time in silent prayer at the site of the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port blast.
The explosion tore through the Lebanese capital, killing at least 218 people, wounding more than 6,000 and devastating large swaths of Beirut.
Lebanese citizens were enraged by the blast, which appeared to be the result of government negligence, coming on top of an economic crisis spurred by decades of corruption and financial crimes. But an investigation has repeatedly stalled, and five years on, no official has been convicted.
Another important moment will come when Leo meets with young Lebanese. He is expected to give them words of encouragement, amid the decades-long flight of Lebanese abroad, while also acknowledging their disillusionment over the failures of generations before them.
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