 "Pope Leo XIV visits the Little Sisters of the Poor in a Home for the elderly, in Istanbul on November 28, 2025. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)")
Pope Leo XIV touched down in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday, kick-starting his first official trip abroad since becoming head of the Catholic Church.
From the outset, the visit’s tone was one of gratitude and goodwill. Flying over on Thanksgiving, the Pope greeted some 80 journalists aboard the papal plane, wished his American passengers “Happy Thanksgiving,” and accepted gestures of goodwill including pumpkin pies and a pecan pie.
On arriving in Ankara, he was formally welcomed with a military honour guard and soon met with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Presidential Palace. There, Pope Leo called on Turkey to uphold pluralism and to serve as a bridge of dialogue and peace between faiths and peoples. “A society is alive if it has plurality … what makes it a civil society are the bridges that link its people together,” he said.
Against a backdrop of mounting global conflict, Pope Leo issued strong warnings.
He highlighted that the world is facing “a heightened level of conflict on the global level,” driven by economic and military power plays—a situation he likened to a “piecemeal” third world war. The Pope urged leaders and citizens alike not to surrender to violence or division.
More than a diplomatic gesture, the pilgrimage takes on profound symbolic importance: the visit commemorates the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea—an early gathering that produced the Nicene Creed, a foundational statement of faith for Christians worldwide. Pope Leo will travel to Iznik (formerly Nicaea)—where the Council occurred—and is scheduled to meet with Bartholomew I of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians. The joint ceremonies are viewed as a meaningful attempt to heal long-standing rifts within Christianity.
Following his events in Turkey, the Pope is slated to continue to Lebanon—a nation riven by political and economic instability—where he aims to extend his message of interfaith solidarity, reconciliation, and hope for peace across war-torn regions of the Middle East.