The pope is visiting Turkiye till Sunday on his first abroad journey as pontiff, which additionally features a go to to Lebanon.
Printed On 29 Nov 2025
Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque on the third day of his journey to Turkiye, his first identified go to as chief of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship.
The primary US pope bowed barely earlier than getting into the mosque early on Saturday and was led on a tour of the expansive complicated, in a position to maintain 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul.
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Leo, strolling in white socks, smiled throughout the 20-minute go to and joked with certainly one of his guides, the mosque’s lead muezzin – the official who leads the day by day calls to prayer.
“He wished to see the mosque, he wished to really feel the environment of the mosque, and he was very happy,” Askin Tunca, the Blue Mosque’s muezzin who calls the trustworthy to prayer, instructed reporters.
Tunca mentioned after the mosque go to that he requested Leo throughout the tour if he wished to wish for a second, however the pope mentioned he most popular to only go to the mosque.
The Vatican mentioned in an announcement instantly after the go to that Leo undertook the tour “in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and for the religion of those that collect there in prayer”.
Whereas Leo didn’t seem to wish throughout the tour, he did joke with Tunca. Because the group was leaving the constructing, the pope seen he was being guided out a door that’s normally an entryway, the place an indication says: “No exit.”
“It says no exit,” Leo mentioned, smiling. Tunca responded: “You don’t need to exit, you possibly can keep right here.”
The pope is visiting Turkiye till Sunday on his first abroad journey as pontiff, which additionally features a go to to Lebanon.
Leo, a relative unknown on the world stage earlier than changing into pope in Might, is being intently watched as he makes his first speeches abroad and interacts for the primary time with folks outdoors primarily Catholic Italy.
The Blue Mosque is formally named for Sultan Ahmed I, chief of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617, who oversaw its building. It’s embellished with 1000’s of blue ceramic tiles, the idea of its in style title.
Not like his predecessors, Leo didn’t go to the close by Hagia Sophia, the legendary sixth-century basilica constructed throughout the Byzantine Empire, which was transformed right into a mosque underneath the Ottoman Empire, then turned a museum underneath Turkiye’s newly established republic.
However in 2020, the UNESCO World Heritage website was transformed again right into a mosque in a transfer that drew worldwide condemnation, together with from the late Pope Francis who mentioned he was “very saddened”.
