Pope Leo In Türkiye you will meet with … The Almighty Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be remembered with the Orthodox The anniversary of the first council held before the great schismsAnd he will pray in the mosque. In Lebanon, he will sleep for two nights in Beirut despite the recent Israeli attack on the city, demand accountability for the port explosion five years ago, and support Christians in the Middle East.
The agenda of those days would allow “to discover who Leo XIV is” and See how he behaves among people. Well, he will have a lot of public appearances for six days and will participate in meetings with very different people, from the elderly to doctors, volunteers, patients in a psychiatric hospital or young people from Christian minorities in Syria and Egypt. The Pope also plans to answer questions from the press during his return flight Tuesday afternoon.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stressed on Tuesday, while presenting the trip plan, that “there is no particular concern for the safety of the Pope” and that “all necessary precautions have been taken.” He added: “In general, I do not provide information about security decisions, and I will not do so now, but it is clear that depending on the situation, the Pope will travel in the car that is considered the most appropriate. I have nothing more to add.”
“It will be an arduous trip to two very important countries,” Bruni added. Leon visits them to fulfill a promise from Pope Francis. «Francis was very committed to traveling to Türkiye Celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea with the Orthodox Church in the place where it was held; “Like going to Lebanon, a country that has suffered a lot.”
The visit has enormous geopolitical value, taking into account that he arrives in Turkey on Thursday while Ukraine is considering reaching an agreement to end the war, and will visit Lebanon as of Sunday despite Israel maintaining its army in five towns in the south of the country. But regardless of the political content, it is its priority Promoting unity among Christians And support for Christians in the Middle East, who live in difficult and even hostile contexts.
A strategic place for Christians
The roots of Christianity are in Türkiye, as it is the scene of episodes in the Bible and the New Testament. Abraham lived in the south of the country when he left Ur of the Chaldeans, and within its borders is Ararat, the mountain on which Noah’s Ark landed. Here Saint Paul was born, followers of Jesus received the name “Christians” for the first time, and the first eight councils in history were held. However, at present, only 90,000 of its population of 85,600,000, i.e. 0.1%, have been baptized.
The visit was prepared nearly 11 years ago, when the main leader of the Orthodox community, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, suggested to Pope Francis that we celebrate together. 1700 of the first council in historyThe Council of Nicaea, in which Christians agreed on the formula for the Creed. The prayer they composed there, the Creed, is still prayed in Catholic and Orthodox churches. Bartholomew also called on the successors of the patriarchs who participated afterward, and who were practically divided among themselves. The major absentees are representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Pope will attend the anniversary because he wants his first trip to be an outstretched hand to the Orthodox and to contribute to supporting the Christian presence in the country. For this reason, Erdogan will be asked for permission to reopen an Orthodox religious school that was closed nearly 50 years ago due to bureaucratic obstacles. also He will visit the Orthodox “Vatican”.Mass will be celebrated by about 4,000 Catholics in a sports hall in Istanbul.
Praying in the mosque
In addition, you will enter the most important and beautiful place of Islamic worship in the country, the Blue Mosque, and pause for a few minutes in “silent prayer” as a gesture of respect towards the Islamic world. Benedict Unlike his predecessors, Leo XIV would not enter Hagia Sophia, because in recent years it was not a museum but a mosque and the mosaics containing Christian images were covered with curtains.
Tension in Beirut
The tone of the period in Lebanon is different, as the country is going through a delicate social crisis, characterized by political instability, rampant inflation, and the migration of young people to countries that provide them with stability. In this context, the population, both Catholic and Muslim, see the Pope’s visit as the beginning of solving their problems.
“The deteriorating economic and financial situation and corruption within the country are eroding young people’s confidence in their future, hindering the establishment of true peace and pushing many Lebanese into permanent emigration,” Khalil Alwan, head of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, the country’s religious center as a place of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims, confirms to ABC from Beirut. “Lebanon faces many challenges, most notably the repercussions of the Abraham Accords and the “New Middle East” projects, and Israel’s continued violations of Lebanese sovereignty and its disregard for United Nations resolutions, in addition to The intransigence of Hezbollah and its allies», sums up. He expressed his hope that the Pope’s long-awaited visit, accompanied by the Western press, would shed light on the suffering of the Lebanese people in these difficult circumstances and present a realistic picture of their situation.
Mariel Boutros, president of the Foundation for Helping the Church in Need in Lebanon, points out that “this visit comes at a sensitive time.” “We are exhausted by economic collapse, instability, lack of justice, and military attacks… and we see no future in sight. The past is behind us, but times have not changed. This visit tells us that Lebanon has not forgotten and that the Church at least remembers this country.”
The highlight of the Lebanese stage will be the Pope’s silent prayer in “Warehouse 12”, the epicenter of the supposed accidental explosion that on August 4, 2020, killed 235 people, injured 6,000 others, and damaged the homes of about 300,000 people. With his silent prayer, the Pontiff will ask the political class not to obstruct the investigation and hold those responsible accountable for what happened.