istanbul
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Pope Leo
On Saturday, Leo visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque. Considered a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture, this 17th-century place of worship has walls and domes decorated with turquoise ceramic tiles.
Accompanied by local Islamic leaders, Leo walked through the courtyard of the mosque, took off his shoes, and was shown inside wearing white socks. America’s first pope, an avid baseball fan of the Chicago White Sox, recently joked that he always wears “white socks.”
Ashgin Tunka from Muzin said Leo was invited to pray during his visit. Muzzin is an official who calls Muslims to prayer, and was also one of the officials who escorted Leo to the Blue Mosque.
“I asked him if I wanted to pray here, and he said, ‘No, I’m just going to look around,'” Tunka later said, explaining that “they told me” that the pope was going to “pray here.”
Further confusion arose when the Vatican Press Office issued a statement after the visit saying that Leo prayed in a mosque and was welcomed by the head of Turkey’s state-run religious organization, even though neither event occurred. The Vatican later announced that the statement, which referred to Leo observing a “brief moment of prayer”, had been sent in error and had been excerpted from a booklet prepared before the trip.
Leo becomes the third pope to visit the Blue Mosque. Past papal visits have raised questions about whether the pope will pray.
In 2014, Pope Francis observed a two-minute silence in a mosque, and in 2006, Pope Benedict
After Leo’s visit, the Vatican announced that the pope “visited the mosque in silence, in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for this place and the faith of those who have gathered here to pray.”
The first pope to visit a mosque was John Paul II, who visited a mosque in Syria in 2001. For the past 60 years, the Catholic Church has engaged in active dialogue with the Islamic world.
Pope Leo recently commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Church’s landmark Declaration on Interreligious Cooperation, attended by hundreds of religious leaders at the Vatican.
Late Saturday, Leo met privately with local Christian church leaders before attending a service at St. Peter’s Patriarchal Church.
George is alongside Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Highlighting one of the main messages of Leo’s journey, the two spoke of the “fraternal” bond that currently exists between the two Christian sects that were split in the “Great Schism” in 1054 due to theological differences that caused schism for centuries.
Leaders of both churches signed a joint statement after the service, rejecting “the use of religion and the name of God to justify violence.”
“We believe that genuine interreligious dialogue, far from being a source of mixing and confusion, is essential for the coexistence of peoples of different traditions and cultures,” the joint declaration added.
Leo then preached at a mass attended by thousands of people at Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena, where he spoke about the importance of Catholics fostering ties with other faiths.
“We want to walk together by giving everyone a strong message of hope and an invitation to become ‘peacebuilders’ by appreciating what unites us, breaking down barriers of prejudice and mistrust, and promoting mutual knowledge and respect,” he said.
Türkiye’s Catholic community is very small, numbering around 33,000 people, according to Vatican statistics. They are a diverse group made up of various ethnic minorities, such as Armenians and Assyrians, and a large number of immigrants. The flags of each country were displayed at the mass, and the approximately 3,000 participants were filled with excitement.
Some participants wore Leo T-shirts, others chanted “Long live Daddy,” and one woman waved a flag that included the colors of both Turkey and the Vatican.
The liturgy was celebrated in a variety of languages, including Turkish, English, Latin, Armenian, and Aramaic, and also reflected Turkey’s various church traditions. Simultaneous interpretation in Turkish was projected on a large screen. Pope Leo gave his homily in English. Pope Leo gave his homily in English.
