ISTANBUL: Pope Leo XIV wraps up a four-day trip to Turkiye Sunday after a warm welcome by its tiny Christian community, before heading to Lebanon with a message of peace for the crisis-mired nation. On his first overseas trip since being elected leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Leo met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before traveling to Iznik for a celebration marking 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea, one of the early Church’s most important gatherings.

He will gather with leaders of other Christian traditions in Nicaea and celebrate Mass in Beirut.

Vatican says ‘demanding’ six-day mission will be packed with meetings with political and religious leaders