1+ hour, 7+ min ago (1085+ words) Pope Leo XIV spoke to leaders of Christianity's divided Churches and communities on Friday afternoon in Nicaea " modern-day Iznik, Turkey " telling them, "We must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism." No one from the Patriarchate of Moscow was there to hear it. That was because, "The Catholics have invited Catholics, and the Orthodox invite[d] Orthodox," as the head of the Vatican's ecumenical dicastery, Cardinal Kurt Koch, told Crux on Friday. "I respect the decision of the Orthodox," Koch said. The absence of representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church was nevertheless conspicuous, and a sign of the persistent chill both in the internal relations of the great Churches of global Orthodoxy and in relations between Rome and Moscow. The chill came after long-simmering tensions between the Patriarchates of Moscow…...

7+ hour ago (1219+ words) Pope Leo XIV and the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Archbishop Sahag II Mashalian celebrate a liturgy in the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (Credit: Domenico Stinellis/AP.) ISTANBUL " On his last day in Turkey, Pope Leo XIV urged Christian leaders to work together to promote unity, care for creation, and promote a responsible use of new technologies amid their rapid development. Speaking to leaders and representatives of the various Christian communities present in the region Sunday, the pope said that given their shared faith, they must have a unified voice in the face of current global challenges. Most urgent is the promotion of peace, he said, saying, "at this time of bloodstained conflict and violence in places both near and far, Catholics and Orthodox are called to be peacemakers." "This certainly means taking action, making choices and…...

23+ hour, 47+ min ago (388+ words) ISTANBUL " As part of the global Airbus recall on most of their a320 aircrafts, one of the most widely used passenger planes in use, the ITA Airways plane Pope Leo is using during his trip to Turkey and Lebanon had to undergo a technical fix before departing for Beirut. On Saturday the Airbus airline company announced that it was grounding some 6,000 planes for modifications of monitors related to a risk of solar flares on Thanksgiving weekend " one of the most highly trafficked weekends of the year. It also coincided with Pope Leo's Nov. 27 " Dec. 2 visit to Turkey and Lebanon. The announcement was made the night before Leo is due to fly from Istanbul to Beirut for the last leg of his two-nation journey, the first international trip of his papacy. Airbus made the decision after discovering that computers installed on most…...

1+ day, 2+ hour ago (663+ words) The Advent season begins this Sunday, and that means The Sound of Music will soon be on television in the United States. The ABC network airs the film classic starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer each year before Christmas, a broadcasting tradition that began in 2002. (It would air before Easter when I was a child, which shows my age.) As I considered the latest contretemps involving the prefect of the Dicastery of for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fern'ndez, a song from the film came to mind. "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" sing the sisters of the convent in which the heroine of the story is an unlikely novice at the beginning of the story. Though they are reasonably unlikely to be breaking out in song anytime soon, Vatican types may be…...

1+ day, 2+ hour ago (953+ words) Ecumenical prayer attended by Pope Leo XIV and Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in modern-day Iznik on Nov. 28, 2025. (Credit: Vatican Media.) ISTANBUL " Pope Leo XIV and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople issued a joint call for peace Saturday, condemning violence and urging faithful to work for a better world. "The goal of Christian unity includes the objective of contributing in a fundamental and life-giving manner to peace among all peoples," Leo and Bartholomew said in a joint declaration published Nov. 29. They issued a joint call for "God's gift of peace upon our world," noting that, "Tragically, in many regions of our world, conflict and violence continue to destroy the lives of so many." "We appeal to those who have civil and political responsibilities to do everything possible to ensure that the…...

1+ day, 6+ hour ago (420+ words) Pope Leo XIV hopes to visit Jerusalem in 2033, to mark the 2000th anniversary of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection. That's according to a statement from the press office of the Holy See, given to journalists traveling with Leo in Turkey, where the pontiff has been since Thursday to mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. The Upper Room " often called the cenacle (a Latin-root word meaning "supper-room) " is the site of the Last Supper and one of the key sites in the Gospel accounts of Pentecost. Pope St. John Paul II said a private Mass in the Upper Room during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, and Benedict XVI visited the Upper Room during his 2009 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The press office statement said Leo called the spiritual journey one "that leads to full unity, citing his motto:…...

1+ day, 6+ hour ago (790+ words) Pope Leo XIV, center, walking with Muezzin Musa Asg'n Tunca, left, Dr. Emrullah Tuncel, second from left, and Imam of Mosque Sultanahmet Fatih Kaya, visits the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Credit: Domenico Stinellis/AP.) ISTANBUL " As he continues to develop his own personal style in his new role as pope, Leo XIV Saturday paid a brief visit to Istanbul's Sultan Ahmed Mosque, where he had a brief tour but did not pray. The pope arrived at Sultan Ahmed, called the "Blue Mosque" due to the color of its ornate inner d'cor, at 9 a.m. local time. He was welcomed by Turkey's minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy; the provincial mufti of Istanbul, Emrullah Tuncel; and the Grand Imam of Sultan Ahmed, Kurra Haf'z Fatih Kaya. After removing his shoes prior to entering the mosque, displaying a pair…...

1+ day, 7+ hour ago (832+ words) ISTANBUL " Speaking to Turkey's small Catholic minority during Mass on Saturday afternoon, Pope Leo XIV stressed the need to work for peace and unity in such an ethnically and culturally diverse region. During his" Mass on Nov. 29 " the Solemnity of St. Andrew the Apostle and the 1st Sunday of Advent " the pope urged Catholics to develop a strong spiritual and sacramental life, and to build a life centered on peace, recalling the day's second reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah. Quoting the book of Isaiah, he said, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." "How urgent this call is for us today!" Leo said. "How great the need for peace, unity and reconciliation around us, within us and among…...

2+ day, 3+ hour ago (1289+ words) Pope Leo XIV meets the clergy at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (Credit: Domenico Stinellis/AP.) IZNIK " During a visit to Iznik on Friday, Pope Leo issued a call for Christian unity and fraternity in a world rife with war and condemned fundamentalist attitudes and the use of religion to justify violence. "Today, the whole of humanity afflicted by violence and conflict is crying out for reconciliation," the pope said during a Nov. 28 ecumenical prayer service near the excavation site of the ancient Basilica of Saint Neophytos. He made the remarks during an afternoon visit to Iznik, formerly Nicaea, in Turkey, to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which reaffirmed Jesus's divinity and produced the modern-day "Nicene Creed" recited during Sunday Masses. Leo in his homily for the occasion said the desire…...

2+ day, 4+ hour ago (1827+ words) Pope Leo XIV waves to the people as he arrives to the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, during his first foreign trip. (Credit: Emrah Gurel/AP.) Pope Leo XIV marks a high point of his'his first foreign trip'to Turkey with a pilgrimage to the site where early Christian church leaders met 1,700 years ago under the auspices of the Roman Emperor Constantine to host the'Council of Nicaea. Leo will pray with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, at the site of the A.D. 325 gathering, now the town of Iznik, and sign a joint declaration in a show of Christian unity. The unprecedented gathering of at least 250 bishops from around the Roman Empire during the first council established the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still…...