Pope Leo XIV lands in Ankara for his first foreign trip, meeting Erdoğan and joining Patriarch Bartholomew to mark 1700 years since Nicaea Council.
Newsroom (27/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, touched down in Ankara shortly after midday Thursday, marking the start of his inaugural Apostolic Journey abroad — a six-day visit to Türkiye and Lebanon aimed at fostering Christian unity and delivering a message of peace in a volatile region.
The papal ITA Airways Airbus A320neo, bearing the image of Our Mother of Good Counsel — a Marian title especially cherished by the Augustinian order — departed Rome’s Fiumicino Airport at 7:58 a.m. More than 80 journalists accompanied the 267th Successor of Peter on the flight, underscoring intense global interest in the opening chapter of his international ministry.
Speaking to reporters en route, Leo described the trip as “a historic moment” both for Christians and for the wider world. “I have very much been looking forward to this trip because of what it means for Christians, but it is also a great message to the whole world,” he said.
Upon landing, the pope’s first act was to pay respects at the Anıtkabir mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish republic — a customary gesture by visiting heads of state. He then proceeded to the sprawling presidential palace for a private meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and an address to civil authorities and the diplomatic corps.
In a notable departure from tradition, Leo XIV will deliver all speeches during the journey in English, his native language, rather than Italian, signaling his intent to reach the broadest possible audience.
Türkiye, where Christians constitute just 0.1 percent of an 86 million predominantly Sunni Muslim population, presents a delicate diplomatic landscape. The Holy See has praised Ankara’s hosting of more than 2.5 million refugees, mostly from Syria, even as human-rights advocates urge the pontiff to address restrictions on religious minorities, political arrests, and democratic backsliding.
Thursday evening the pope flies to Istanbul, where he will reside at the Apostolic Nunciature.
Friday’s schedule shifts to explicitly religious milestones. In ancient Iznik (biblical Nicaea), Leo will join Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of 325, which produced the Nicene Creed still professed by Catholics, Orthodox, and many Protestants. A joint prayer service on the shores of Lake Iznik had originally been planned with Pope Francis before his death in April.
“Bartholomew and I have already met several times, and I think this will be an exceptional opportunity to promote unity among all Christians,” Leo told journalists two days ago.
The visit occurs against the backdrop of deepening fractures in global Orthodoxy, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and tensions between the Constantinople and Moscow patriarchates. Leo’s presence alongside Bartholomew, spiritual leader of some 300 million Orthodox worldwide, is seen as a powerful symbol of rapprochement nearly a millennium after the Great Schism of 1054.
Leo XIV is the fifth pope to visit Türkiye, following Paul VI (1967), John Paul II (1979), Benedict XVI (2006), and Francis (2014).
On November 30 the pontiff travels onward to Lebanon — a country reeling from economic collapse since 2019 and recent Israeli airstrikes despite a fragile ceasefire — where he is expected to console its beleaguered Christian communities and appeal for regional stability.
As the papal plane descended over Ankara, Leo XIV looked out at a nation straddling Europe and the Middle East and told reporters: “We come unarmed, carrying only the disarmament of the Gospel.” His first steps on Turkish soil thus opened what Vatican officials describe as a pilgrimage of encounter in one of the world’s most complex geopolitical and interfaith cross-roads.
- Raju Hasmukh with files form Vatican News and UCA News
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