Pope Leo XIV will join the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians on Friday to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of one of the early Church’s key councils, as he continues the second day of his visit to Türkiye.
The American pope began his four-day visit on Thursday in Ankara, where he urged President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to embrace Türkiye's role as a source of "stability and rapprochement between peoples" in a world gripped by conflict.
"This land is inextricably linked to the origins of Christianity, and today it beckons the children of Abraham and all humanity to a fraternity that recognizes and appreciates differences," he said, before flying to Istanbul, where he will stay until Sunday, when he travels on to Lebanon.
The 70-year-old pontiff spent Friday morning with Catholic leaders before going to Iznik to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of bishops who drew up a foundational statement of faith still central to Christianity today.
The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics joined a prayer service early Friday at Istanbul's Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, the police shutting down a main artery of Türkiye's largest city to allow his entourage to pass.
While hundreds of pilgrims were packed into the church, dozens more waited excitedly in the courtyard outside in the hope of getting a glimpse of the pontiff, many of whom had gotten up before dawn to be in the front line.
"It's a blessing for us, it's so important that the first visit of the pope is to our country," beamed a 35-year-old Turkish Catholic called Ali Gunuru.
"The world needs peace, we have serious problems, especially in our area, in our country: the foreigners, refugees... I pray for them, and I believe the pope will have the power to help them and that he will do everything," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Visibly moved by his reception at the church, Leo could be seen smiling and looking much more at ease than on Thursday, encouraging his flock not to be discouraged, saying, "The logic of littleness is the Church's true strength."
"The Church in Türkiye is a small community, yet fruitful," he said in his address, urging them to give "special attention" to helping migrants and refugees staying in Türkiye who number nearly three million, most of them Syrians.
"The significant presence of migrants and refugees in this country presents the Church with the challenge of welcoming and serving some of the most vulnerable," he said.
The Holy See also acknowledges Türkiye's efforts in hosting refugees and migrants, whose fate was closely followed both by the late Pope Francis and by Leo, who recently criticized their "extremely disrespectful" treatment by the government of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Leo's visit’s impact on Istanbul's notoriously bad traffic did not pass unnoticed.
"It's an important visit for Istanbul, but we are the ones suffering," a 55-year-old woman called Fatmah told AFP, without giving her surname.
"Of course, it's normal to take security measures, but no one thinks about the workers."
In the early afternoon, Leo will be flown by helicopter to Iznik, where he has been invited by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, to join a prayer service.
The prayer will take place by the ruins of a fourth-century basilica built on the site where the First Council took place.
Türkiye is not "a hostile environment" for Christians, the patriarch told AFP. "It is simplistic to see adversaries everywhere and to imagine the pope's visit as taking sides in a hostile environment."
After meeting Erdoğan, the pope described Türkiye as a "crossroads of sensibilities" that was richer for its "internal diversity".
Türkiye has a population of 86 million but only about 100,000 Christians.
But Bartholomew said living in a Muslim country had its advantages.
"Living in a predominantly Muslim country is a blessing in disguise because it sustains and strengthens the essential feature of the Patriarchate... open and honest dialogue with all people in all places, irrespective of race and religion," he said.
The timing of Leo's visit, coming at a moment of conflict, was significant, he said.
"When the world is troubled and divided by conflict and antagonism, our meeting with Pope Leo XIV is especially significant," Bartholomew said. "It reminds our faithful that we are more powerful and more credible when we are united in our witness and response to the challenges of the contemporary world."
Pope Leo is the fifth pontiff to visit Türkiye, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.
