Pope Leo XIV arrived in Turkey on Thursday for the first overseas trip of his papacy, which includes a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The journey, also featuring a visit to Lebanon, is due to begin in Ankara, where the first American pope arrived shortly after noon.
While in Ankara, the pope will speak to government officials, civil society representatives, and diplomats before travelling to Istanbul later in the evening. Leo’s initial actions abroad will be closely watched, with over 80 journalists on board his papal plane.
In Ankara, Leo will also visit the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, a national monument representing the secular republic.
Since his election in May as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the pope has shown himself to be adept at handling the media, talking to reporters weekly.
His first address in Turkey is expected to focus on dialogue with Islam in a country where Christians account for only 0.1% of the 86 million inhabitants, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.
Even with growing religious nationalism in Turkey and the 2020 reconversion of Hagia Sophia—a church for more than 1,000 years—into a mosque, the Vatican continues to pursue dialogue with Ankara, seen as a crucial partner in regional peace efforts.
The pope is the fifth pontiff to visit Turkey, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.
