Pope Leo
Leo took off his shoes and walked around the 17th-century mosque in his white socks, looking up at the towering tiled domes and Arabic inscriptions on the columns as an imam pointed them out.
The Vatican had said Leo would observe a “brief moment of silent prayer” at the mosque, but he did not. An imam at the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said he invited Leo to pray as the mosque was “the house of Allah,” but the pope declined.
Later, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: “The Pope lived his visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”
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Pope Leo Emrullah Tuncel and Imam of Sultanahmet Fatih Kaya Mosque. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
The Vatican subsequently broadcast a corrected version of its bulletin on the trip, removing the reference to the planned “short moment of silent prayer” without further explanation.
Leo, the first American pope in history, followed in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, as it is officially known, as a gesture of respect for Turkey’s Muslim majority.
Papal visits to the Blue Mosque often raise questions
But the visits have always raised questions about whether the pope would pray at the Muslim house of worship, or at least pause to collect thoughts in a meditative silence.
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When Pope Benedict
The Vatican added a visit to the Blue Mosque at the last minute in an effort to reach Muslims. He observed a moment of silent prayer, with his head bowed, while the Imam prayed next to him, facing east.
Benedict later thanked him “for this moment of prayer” for what was only the second time a pope has visited a mosque, after John Paul II briefly visited there in Syria in 2001.
There were no doubts when Pope Francis visited the Blue Mosque in 2014: he stood silently in prayer for two minutes with his face turned east, his head bowed, his eyes closed and his hands clasped in front of him. The Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, told the pope afterwards: “May God accept it.”
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But with Leo, even the Vatican seemed blindsided by his decision not to pray. The Holy See had to correct the official account of the visit after originally retaining the planned reference to his pause for prayer.
Speaking to reporters after the visit, Imam Tunca said he told the Pope: “It is not my house, not your house, (it is the) house of Allah.” He said he invited Leo to worship. “But he said, ‘That’s OK.'”
“He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel the atmosphere of the mosque, I think. And was very happy with it,” he said.
There was also another change to the official program after the Vatican said the head of Turkey’s Diyanet Religious Affairs Directorate would accompany Leo to the mosque. He did not come and a Diyanet spokesperson said that was not the intention as he had welcomed Leo to Ankara.
Pope Leo (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
POPE LEO
Hagia Sophia left the route
Past popes have also visited the nearby Hagia Sophia monument, once one of the most important historic cathedrals in Christianity and a United Nations-designated World Heritage Site.
But Leo left that visit out of his itinerary. In July 2020, Turkey converted Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque, a move that met with much international criticism, including from the Vatican.
After the mosque visit, Leo held a private meeting with Turkey’s Christian leaders at the Syrian Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. In the afternoon he prayed with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George.
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There they prayed the doxology, a hymn of praise and glory to God, and signed a joint statement pledging to take bold steps on the path to unity, including finding a common date for Easter.
Eastern and Western churches split during the Great Schism of 1054, a rift caused largely by disagreements over papal primacy. Although ties have strengthened, they remain divided and other schisms have formed.
“It is our shared desire to continue the process of exploring a possible solution to celebrate the Feast of Feasts together every year,” the joint statement said, referring to Easter.
The Vatican said in its remarks to the assembled patriarchs that Leo referred to the next Holy Year to be celebrated by Christians, in 2033, on the anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion, and invited them to go to Jerusalem on “a journey that leads to complete unity.”
Leo’s last event was a Catholic Mass at Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena for the country’s Catholic community, which numbers 33,000 people in a country of more than 85 million, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.
The Airbus software update does not spare Pope
While Leo focused on strengthening relations with Orthodox Christians and Muslims, the tour operators had to deal with more mundane issues.
Pope Leo (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
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Leo’s ITA Airways Airbus A320neo charter was one of the charters involved in the global Airbus software update, commissioned by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. The order came after an analysis found that the computer code may have contributed to a JetBlue plane’s sudden altitude drop last month.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said on Saturday that ITA was working on the issue. He said the necessary monitor to update the plane was on its way from Rome to Istanbul, along with the technician who would install it.
Leo will fly from Istanbul to Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon for the second leg of his inaugural trip as pope.
