VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV will visit Turkiye and Lebanon next month on the first foreign trip of his papacy, the Vatican announced on Tuesday.
The trip offers a symbolically important gesture to Christians and Muslims as a pilgrimage to two countries that the pope’s predecessor, Francis, had planned to visit.
The Vatican said Leo will visit Turkiye from Nov. 27-30, and Lebanon from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2. The trip to Turkiye will include a pilgrimage to Iznik to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.
The anniversary is an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations, since the 325 A.D. Nicea meeting predates the schisms that divided Christianity’s East from West and is accepted by Catholic and Orthodox churches alike.
Francis had planned to mark it with his own trip to Turkiye in May at the invitation of Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians. Francis died in April, and Leo said from the start of his pontificate that he intended to fulfill Francis’ plans.
