Rome
—
Pope Leo XIV begins a six-day go to to Turkey and Lebanon on Thursday, his first foreign journey since his election and one on which he’s anticipated to emphasize key themes of his fledgling preach – amongst them dialogue and unity.
Overseas journeys are an essential half of the papacy’s “soft power,” providing a possibility for the pope to meet political leaders of his host nation, handle the native Catholic group and focus worldwide media consideration on regional points.
By going to Lebanon, Leo is flying into the center of a conflict-ridden Middle East, and he’s due in Beirut simply days after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital.
For Leo, the go to can provide added weight to his appeals for concord and dialogue within the Middle East, echoing the first phrases he uttered after his election: “Peace be with you all.”
He can be following within the footsteps of Pope Francis, who used his papal visits to attempt to assist war-torn nations resembling South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Francis additionally went to Turkey and the Holy Land early in his papacy.
The first American pope is embarking on his first journey in the course of the US Thanksgiving vacation, a time when gratitude, togetherness and peace come to the fore.
These themes could take on a broader, world resonance in a go to to two Muslim-majority nations which can be dwelling to historical Christian communities. The pope’s journey can be anticipated to have a robust focus on dialogue and unity between the completely different branches of Christianity. Leo can even give all his speeches in English and French, and never in Italian, marking a shift in papal tradition with the first US-born pontiff, who speaks a number of languages fluently.
Here’s a breakdown of the journey:
Why is the pope touring to Turkey and Lebanon?
Pope Leo is honoring the guarantees made by his predecessor, Francis, to go to each nations. Francis had deliberate to go to Lebanon in 2022 and Turkey sooner or later in 2025 to commemorate an essential church anniversary, however each journeys had been postponed for well being causes.
Leo has additionally been formally invited to go to the nations by their respective presidents. While Turkey is a rustic the place most of the inhabitants is Muslim, it’s dwelling to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who is taken into account the religious chief of the Eastern Orthodox church and has his headquarters in Istanbul.
The Eastern and Western branches of Christianity cut up in 1054 in what was described because the “great schism.” Efforts have been made in current a long time to heal the divisions, with Francis, Benedict XVI and John Paul II all visiting Turkey early of their pontificates.
“I think Pope Leo is following his predecessors by going to Turkey on his first trip abroad. It is a massively Muslim country, but he is going there for Christian reasons,” Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, a former chief of the Vatican’s workplace for inter-religious dialogue, advised NCS.
The Vatican has lengthy been engaged in Middle Eastern diplomacy, and in 2021 Pope Francis hosted Lebanese Christian leaders within the Vatican to handle the nation’s political disaster.
Leo’s go to to Lebanon comes after he has repeatedly referred to as for dialogue and peace within the area. While Lebanon’s inhabitants is majority Muslim, the president of the nation (presently Joseph Aoun) is by conference a Maronite Christian.
Leo goes to have fun the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which befell in modern-day Iznik, northwestern Turkey. The council of 325 AD agreed on a formulation of Christian perception referred to as the “Nicene Creed,” which continues to be stated in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and different church buildings in the present day.
While in Turkey, Leo will participate in an occasion Friday in Iznik with Patriarch Bartholomew and different church leaders to mark the creed’s anniversary. Ahead of his go to, Leo printed a letter saying that the 1,700th anniversary of Nicaea ought to encourage church buildings to “leave behind theological controversies that have lost their raison d’être,” whereas calling for “reconciliation through dialogue.”
The Grand Ecclesiarch Aetios (Dimitrios Nikiforos), the director of Patriarch Bartholomew’s personal workplace who has been serving to to plan the papal go to, advised NCS that marking the anniversary “can also serve as a decisive moment for the present and the future of Christianity and its witness in the contemporary world.”
He added that safety of the surroundings will probably be on the agenda as half of “raising ecological awareness through common mobilization.” Bartholomew is typically referred to because the “Green Patriarch” for his environmental work.
Leo can even be in Turkey to mark the feast of Saint Andrew, an essential ceremony for the Orthodox Church, and the pope is predicted to signal a joint declaration with the patriarch.
In an age of division and non secular persecution, “the symbolical presence of two global spiritual leaders renders the witness of Christianity more credible and impactful,” the Rev. John Chryssavgis, a theologian and adviser to Bartholomew, advised NCS. He added that Leo’s go to underlines the “close connections and search for unity between Rome and Constantinople.”
While in Turkey, Leo can even make his first go to as pope to a mosque, Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, however he gained’t go to the Hagia Sophia, a former church and later museum, which was transformed again right into a mosque in 2020. At the time, Pope Francis described himself as “pained” by Turkey’s choice. On Saturday, Leo will have fun Mass with an estimated 4,000 individuals on the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul, and, in a late addition to the schedule, he’ll go to the Diyanet – the Presidency of Religious Affairs – in Ankara and meet the Chief Rabbi of Turkey.
The pope arrives Sunday in Lebanon, the place he’s due to meet political leaders and younger individuals, participate in an inter-religious gathering and have fun a Mass on the Beirut waterfront.
On December 2, Leo will pray in silence on the website of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, which left 218 lifeless and injured greater than 7,000. Many in Lebanon are nonetheless ready for an evidence as to its trigger and, in early August, Leo despatched a message to a vigil marking 5 years for the reason that blast.
Lebanon is made up of a wealthy tapestry of completely different non secular teams and is dwelling to 12 Christian communities; Leo is due to have a personal assembly with some of their leaders. He can even have a personal assembly with Muslim and Druze leaders.
The largest Christian grouping in Lebanon is the Maronites, an jap church that acknowledges the authority of the pope and is a component of the Catholic Church however has its personal traditions, together with permitting married males to be ordained as monks.
Leo will go to the monastery of Saint Maron, the 4th century patron of the Maronite church, so he can pray on the tomb of one other essential saint, Charbel Makhlouf, a monk famend for bringing individuals of completely different faiths collectively.
The pope’s busy schedule additionally features a go to to a big psychiatric facility run by Catholic non secular sisters, the Dde la Croix hospital in Jal el- Dib, and he’ll plant a cedar tree whereas within the Presidential Palace in Beirut.
The Rev. Michel Abboud, who’s president of Caritas Lebanon, the Catholic church’s charitable arm within the nation, advised Vatican News that the pope’s go to means “the people will know that, despite all the difficult situations they have been through, they must not feel abandoned.”
How does the pope journey and who’s he touring with?
The first pontiff to journey by airplane on an official journey was Pope Paul VI, when he flew to Jordan in 1964, marking the start of modern-day papal foreign journey. Leo will fly on an ITA Airways airplane, a papal flight typically nicknamed “Shepherd One,” accompanied by round 80 journalists.
He will probably be accompanied by senior figures from the Vatican, together with the cardinals who run the departments for Christian unity, inter-religious dialogue and jap church buildings, his secretaries and a medical staff. The pope and his celebration sit on the entrance of the airplane and media on the again. Pope Francis would go to the again of the airplane to greet all of the journalists touring with him individually, and on the best way again would maintain a press convention.
A papal press convention has not been confirmed but when one is held, it is going to seemingly be on the returning flight. Leo has been holding impromptu press gaggles exterior the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo.
While he’s in Turkey and Lebanon, Leo will probably be transported by automotive and army helicopter, and is predicted to use a papal-style golf-buggy within the Volkswagen enviornment in Turkey. A Vatican spokesman advised reporters on Tuesday that Leo will use open- high transport in each nations however “the most appropriate vehicle will be chosen depending on the situation.”
Popes usually keep within the residence of the papal ambassador – referred to as the “apostolic nuncio” – when on abroad visits, and the Vatican has embassies within the capital cities of each Turkey and Lebanon.
While in Turkey, nonetheless, he’s not staying in a single day in Ankara, so will as a substitute be staying on the Apostolic Delegation in Istanbul, the house of the Holy See consultant in Turkey earlier than the capital moved. The property is on Papa Roncalli Street, named after Pope John XXIII, who was the Holy See consultant to Turkey and Greece within the Thirties and 40s.
It’s not identified if or how Leo will have fun and a Vatican spokesman stated he didn’t have any data to share when requested by NCS on Tuesday.
One of his brothers, John, has talked of how Leo loves Thanksgiving stuffing, a aspect dish that historically accompanies roast turkey.