Pope Leo XIV, elected last May as leader of the Catholic Church, could begin the first foreign trip of his pontificate at the end of November with a visit to Turkey, to be followed by a trip to Lebanon, according to Vatican sources quoted by various media.
According to information by the AFP news agency and quoted in Turkey by media outlets such as CNN Türk, the new Pope’s first trip will be divided into two stages and, with an expected duration of just under a week, will mark the American pontiff’s debut in papal travel. Already last July, Leo XIV had publicly expressed his desire to travel to the Turkish town of Iznik (ancient Nicaea) on the occasion of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, a historic milestone that marked the religious evolution of Christianity.
A spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Istanbul and world leader of Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew I, confirmed to the media that Pope Leo XIV had received an invitation to participate in an event in Istanbul on 29 November; if the Pope accepts the invitation, the two religious leaders would then travel together to Nicaea on the following day, 30 November, coinciding with the important religious feast of St Andrew, to commemorate the anniversary of the historic council.
Convened in 325 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, the first Council of Nicaea brought together bishops from across the Roman Empire to establish a common creed for Christians, the so-called Nicene Creed, which represented a universal (Catholic) declaration of faith in one God consisting of a Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – that remains a fundamental pillar of Christian doctrine today.
Press reports suggest that the Pope is also finalising preparations for a visit to Lebanon, after Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai announced during a televised interview in August that Leo XIV would travel to the country “before December”, in response to an official invitation from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. The last trip of a Roman Pontiff to Lebanon was in 2012, when the then Pope Benedict XVI visited the country. As for Turkey, the last trip by a Pope to the Eurasian country was made in 2014 by Pope Francis, who before his unexpected death in April had expressed his desire to travel to Nicaea.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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