Istanbul

Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s historic Blue Mosque on Saturday, beginning an intense day of engagements with Turkiye’s religious leaders and a Mass for the country’s small Catholic community. While the Vatican had indicated he would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer”, the pontiff did not appear to pray during the visit.

The head of the Diyanet, Turkiye’s religious affairs authority, guided Leo through the 17th-century mosque as he observed the Arabic calligraphy and domed architecture. The imam, Asgin Tunca, later said he had invited the pope to pray since the mosque was “Allah’s house”, but Leo declined. “He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel the atmosphere,” Tunca said.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni later said the pope experienced the visit “in silence, contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”

The visit follows a tradition of high-profile papal stops at the Blue Mosque as gestures of respect toward Turkiye’s Muslim majority. Pope Francis prayed silently there in 2014, and Pope Benedict XVI did the same in 2006 during a landmark outreach to Muslims after tensions over his remarks about Islam.

Unlike his predecessors, Leo chose not to include the nearby Hagia Sophia — once a major Christian basilica and later a museum before its 2020 reconversion into a mosque — on his itinerary.

After his mosque visit, Leo held private talks with Christian leaders at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. Later, he was scheduled to pray alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Orthodox Patriarchate before celebrating Mass at Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena for Turkey’s roughly 33,000 Catholics in a nation of more than 85 million.

Leo’s trip has been marked by a strong push for Christian unity. On Friday, he prayed with church leaders in Iznik at the site of the A.D. 325 Council of Nicaea to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the gathering that produced the Nicene Creed — a foundational statement of faith shared today by Catholics, Orthodox, and most Protestant denominations.

Standing over the excavation site, the pope urged Christian leaders “to overcome the scandal of divisions” and deepen the desire for unity at a time when human dignity faces “countless threats.”

READ MORE: Unity Reel Challenge: Showcase India’s unity in 90 seconds and win a bumper prize

The symbolic joint recitation of the creed at Nicaea — the first time a pope and top Orthodox representatives have done so at the historic site — is being hailed as a significant moment in the centuries-long effort toward reconciliation among Christian traditions separated since the Great Schism of 1054.