The Latest: Pope Leo XIV visits Blue Mosque and holds Mass in Istanbul

Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and celebrated Mass on Saturday on the second day of his trip to Turkey as he stressed the need for Christian unity.

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.

After the mosque visit, Leo met with Turkey’s Christian leaders at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. Later Saturday, he celebrated Mass before 4,000 faithful at Istanbul’s VW Arena, where he appeared alongside Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew and appealed for unity among Christians and other faiths.

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.

Here is the latest:

Some waited in line for hours to see Leo

Michelle and Josue Alverez, both 32 and from Virginia, stood in line for four hours without a ticket in the hope of seeing the pope.

“We only found out the pope was coming here on Wednesday and our whole itinerary changed,” Michelle said. “We had to wait until everyone else went in and only got in more than an hour after the service started.

“Twice one of the sisters dealing with the people arriving told us to go home because she said we wouldn’t get in. We were watching the start of the service on our phones, not knowing if we would get in and finally we did.

“The pope passed really close to us on the way out because we were at the back. It was amazing to be so close to him.”

Croatians Marija Mikulic, 47, and Jalana Micic, 40, were two others who got into the congregation at the last minute.

“We came late because we didn’t have a card to get in and were not on the list,” Jalana, from Bosnia-Herzegovina, said. “We waited 2 1/2 hours and are so lucky and blessed to get inside.”

Leo makes an appeal for unity with other Christians and religions

Pope Leo XIV has urged Turkey’s Catholics to forge “bonds of unity” with other Christians and people of other faiths as an invitation to become peacemakers.

Leo made the appeal during a Mass on Saturday in Istanbul for Turkey’s tiny Catholic community, which numbers around 33,000 in a country of 85 million, mostly Sunny Muslims.

Leo recalled that three bridges span the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul linking East and West. He said Turkish Catholics, too, should form “bonds of unity” on three levels: with other Catholics, other Christians, and people of other faiths.

The Mass was being celebrated in the Volkswagen Arena, which can seat more than 4,500 people. It came on the penultimate day of Leo’s maiden trip. On Sunday he leaves for Beirut.

Crowds gather ahead of Mass in Istanbul

Crowds continued to gather outside Istanbul’s VW Arena on Saturday, where Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to lead Mass despite the rain.

Among them was Safak Volkan, 62, who said she was moved by the occasion even though she is not Christian herself. “This is very interesting to me as this is his first visit, his first international visit. We are happy,” she remarked, standing next to her husband and children who are Christians.

Others traveled from abroad to witness the historic moment.

Alex Salton, 69, a Turkish‑French national living in France, came to Turkey specifically for the pope’s appearance. “It’s a nice visit. But this is rainy today unfortunately. It would have been better if there is sun,” he said.

Christians from all over the world traveled to see Pope Leo in Istanbul

Renato Marai was among a group of 26 visitors from Florence, Italy, who traveled to Istanbul to see the pope.

“We are all from the same parish and we wanted to come because we follow the pope,” he said. “It’s wonderful to see him on his first foreign trip, a really important moment for our group.”

Felix Ehrenbrandtner, an Austrian studying Turkish history at Istanbul University, said Leo’s visit was “significant as the roots of Christianity are in Turkey.”

Tarcin Unlu, meanwhile, was among many Turkish attendees. A recent convert to Christianity from Islam, she said she was looking forward to Mass scheduled for later Saturday. “I am still going through the conversion process. I became Christian because I thought it was the best religion for me, but my family is definitely not happy.”

Her friend, Rodrick Nuel, originally from Nigeria’s Biafra region but now living in northern Cyprus, said the papal visit sent a powerful message for the global Christian community. “Also, as Turkey is 99.9% Muslim and just 0.1% Christian, it shows the pope is reaching out to other religions as well.”

Ansu Aksoy, who was raised as an Armenian Catholic in Istanbul, said she was “not religious” but secured an invite to Mass through a local priest. “I usually find Mass to be a bit of a show and I’m interested to see the pope on stage. It’s not like he comes to Turkey every day.”

Leo and Orthodox spiritual leader Bartholomew vow to work for common Easter date

Pope Leo XIV and the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians have vowed to work courageously to find a way for Catholic and Orthodox churches to set a common date for Easter.

Leo and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew made the pledge in a joint statement signed in Istanbul at the patriarchal palace.

The statement didn’t commit to a decision for a common date. But it said: “It is our shared desire to continue the process of exploring a possible solution for celebrating together the Feast of Feasts every year.”

Eastern and Western churches split in the Great Schism of 1054 and remain divided over a host of issues, not least among them different dates to celebrate feasts that are common to them.

The occasion of the declaration was the commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the meeting of bishops that produced the creed, or profession of faith, that is recited today.

“We are convinced that the commemoration of this significant anniversary can inspire new and courageous steps on the path towards unity,” the statement said.

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

Pope Leo XIV has prayed in 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.

Leo’s charter gets a needed software fix

Not even Pope Leo XIV was spared from the Airbus software fix that has forced short-term disruptions in commercial flights around the world.

Leo is flying along with the papal delegation and press corps aboard an ITA Airways Airbus A320neo charter.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency on Friday ordered airlines to install a new software update on all Airbus A320 family of aircraft. 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, Turkey, to Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon.

Vatican corrects record of pope’s visit to Blue Mosque

The Vatican has corrected the official record of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque to remove a reference to him stopping for a “brief moment of silent prayer.”

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.

Hezbollah calls on Leo to “reject injustice”

Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group called on Pope Leo XIV to “reject injustice and aggression,” in reference to the near-daily Israeli strikes despite a ceasefire that ended the 14-month war between the two sides a year ago.

In a statement Saturday, 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.

“We rely on Your Holiness’s stance in rejecting the injustice and aggression our homeland, Lebanon, is subjected to at the hands of the Zionist invaders and their supporters,” Hezbollah said, referring to Israel and the U.S.

Hezbollah is allied with several Christian groups in the country, including the Free Patriotic Movement and Marada Movement.

Devout Catholics brave the weather to attend Istanbul Mass led by pope

Crowds of devout Catholics have braved the pouring rain and tight security measures to reach the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul, where Pope Leo XIV is set to lead Mass.

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 expectations for this visit are high, especially when it comes to the issue of Israel and Palestine… And of course, the Ukrainian war is also very important for us in Poland,” she said.

Banasik added that she hoped Leo would signal a return to “more traditional” values than his predecessor.

Boosted security measures in Lebanon ahead of pope’s visit

Lebanon increased security measures ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the Mediterranean nation, with a ban on the movement of some trucks and a freeze on all licenses to carry weapons.

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.

Vatican spokesman says Leo’s Blue Mosque visit was to contemplate

Spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement after questions arose about whether Leo prayed in the mosque or not, describing the mosque visit as a silent one to contemplate.

Bruni said: “The pope experienced his visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”

Past papal visits to the mosque have always raised questions about whether the popes would pray in the Muslim house of worship or merely visit as a sign of respect to Muslims.

Blue Mosque Imam invites Leo to pray

Asgin Tunca said he had invited Leo to pray, but the pope declined.

Speaking to reporters after the visit, 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.

Pope visits Blue Mosque

Leo visited the iconic mosque in Istanbul, where the head of Turkey’s Diyanet religious affairs directorate showed him the structure’s soaring blue-tiled dome.

The Vatican said Leo would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer.”

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.