Pope Leo XIV departs Thursday for Turkey and Lebanon, a six-day journey aimed at advancing Christian unity and encouraging peace efforts across a region shaken by conflict and political instability.
According to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the trip is the first major international test for the new U.S. pontiff, elected in May, whose quiet and measured approach contrasts with the charisma and spontaneity of his predecessor, Francis.
Leo’s visit to Turkey will center on the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, where the Creed was drafted.
The milestone has drawn limited attention in the predominantly Muslim country, where Christians make up just 0.2 percent of the 86 million population. In Lebanon, however, anticipation is far higher.
Lebanon has long been held up as a symbol of religious coexistence, yet the country has been overwhelmed since 2019 by overlapping crises: an economic meltdown, the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and a recent war with Israel.
“The Lebanese are tired,” said Vincent Gelot, director of the Lebanon and Syria office for l’Oeuvre d’Orient, a Catholic organization supporting Christians in the Middle East.
“They expect a frank word to the Lebanese elite, as well as strong and concrete actions,” he told AFP.
Across Beirut, preparations are underway at the sites the pope will visit. Roads have been repaired and large signs displaying his image and the message “Lebanon wants peace” now line major routes.
Fadi Assaf, Lebanon’s ambassador to the Holy See, called the trip an “exceptional” visit that will “highlight the difficulties facing Lebanon” as the country seeks a “political and economic breakthrough.”
Gelot said Lebanese families remain stuck in “a vicious cycle of wars and suffering,” facing “dashed hopes” and “uncertainty about the future,” even as they “know full well that (this visit) will not solve all their problems.”
The trip, he added, allows the pope to spotlight the work of private and often religious institutions that have filled gaps in healthcare and education, including a psychiatric hospital run by Franciscan sisters that Leo will tour.
The pope’s Lebanon itinerary includes a meeting with youth, an outdoor Mass expected to draw 100,000 people, and a prayer service at the Beirut port disaster site where more than 220 people were killed.
Abdo Abou Kassem, the Church’s media coordinator for the visit, said Leo also hopes to “reaffirm Lebanon’s role as… a model for both East and West” through an interreligious gathering in downtown Beirut.
The Turkey leg of the trip will focus on dialogue with Islam and the Nicaea anniversary. Leo will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara and visit Istanbul’s Blue Mosque.
The highlight will be a Friday prayer service on the shores of Lake Iznik with Orthodox leaders, a ceremony originally planned for Francis before his death in April.
One significant absence will be Russian Patriarch Kirill. With the war in Ukraine deepening the rift between Moscow and Constantinople, Kirill, a supporter of President Vladimir Putin, was not invited.
AFP reported that Leo is expected to avoid provoking further tensions with Moscow, which fears the Vatican’s engagement could bolster Constantinople’s influence at its expense.
