By choosing to make his first trip as Pope to Türkiye and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV will shine a huge spotlight on the faith Christians share and on the yearnings for peace and prosperity common to all people. Source: OSV News.
The main motivation for the November 27-December 2 trip is to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which laid the basis for the Creed all mainline Christians still recite.
But the Pope is scheduled to spend only one hour near the archaeological excavations of the ancient Nicene Basilica of St Neophytos in Iznik, Türkiye, where an ecumenical prayer service will be held on November 28 to commemorate the council’s anniversary.
Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople will host the visit and has invited the three other Greek Orthodox patriarchs of the East – the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem – to join them, along with representatives of other Christian communities.
The Council of Nicaea, convoked by the Emperor Constantine, met in 325 to resolve issues tearing the Christian community apart, particularly the crisis posed by Arius, who taught that Jesus Christ was not eternal but created by God the Father.
More than 300 bishops from across the known Christian world met at Nicaea, condemned Arius and professed “the Son of God is ‘begotten, not made, of the same substance – homoousios – as the Father,’” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains.
In Türkiye and Lebanon, Pope Leo also will meet with government officials and is likely to praise the people of both nations for the generosity they have shown to refugees, particularly from Syria. Lebanon has the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, and Türkiye is not far behind.
Many Syrian refugees have begun returning home, but fragile – and often interrupted – peace throughout the Middle East will be on the Pope’s mind during the trip, especially once he arrives in Lebanon on November 30.
Despite a ceasefire agreement, Israel has been targeting what it says are Hezbollah and Hamas militants in southern Lebanon; 13 people were killed on Tuesday when Israel fired drones and missiles on what it claimed was a Hamas training camp.
Fr Paolo Pugliese, superior of the Capuchins in Türkiye, told reporters in Rome that papal pleas for peace, especially in Gaza, have given Türkiye’s small Catholic community a visibility and credibility that other Christians might not enjoy.
“The Pope has our back,” he said. “First Francis and now Leo, for example, have spoken significant words about Gaza – personally, and while others remained silent. In this land, hearing those words from the Popes was not insignificant and helped to increase our credibility.”
While Pope Leo will hold meetings with Catholic bishops, priests, religious and pastoral workers in both countries, relations with other Christians and with Muslims will be high on the agenda.
The Pope will visit the famed “Blue Mosque,” formally called the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, in Istanbul on November 29 and will hold an ecumenical and interreligious meeting in Beirut on December 1.
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Pope’s first trip to focus on religious harmony, peacemaking (By Cindy Wooden, OSV News)
