1+ hour, 50+ min ago (1127+ words) November 30, 2025, 12:19 AM Beyond its ecumenical symbolism, the visit also may signal quiet support of ongoing efforts to heal century-old wounds between Turkey and Armenia, long scarred by mass killings and decades of mistrust, observers note. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely view the event as genocide. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. It has lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the massacres as genocide. Pope Francis did not visit any Armenian sites during his visit to Turkey in 2014, but on his way to the airport before departing he made an unscripted stop at a hospital where the ailing Armenian Patriach Mesrob II was being treated. A year later, Francis drew…...

7+ hour, 59+ min ago (915+ words) November 29, 2025, 11:10 PM Leo had two key appointments in Istanbul before flying to Beirut: a prayer at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral and a divine liturgy with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, whose invitation to commemorate an important Christian anniversary was the impetus for Leo's visit. On the second leg of his maiden papal trip, Leo was visiting Lebanon at a precarious moment for the small Mediterranean country after years of successive crises. He is fulfilling a promise of Pope Francis, who had wanted to visit for years but was unable to as his health worsened. Francis often quoted St. John Paul II, who in 1989 said Lebanon was more than just a country, it was a "message" " a message of fraternity and coexistence. Under Lebanon's power-sharing system, the country's president is always a Maronite Christian, the prime…...

19+ hour, 26+ min ago (1037+ words) November 29, 2025, 6:42 AM Pope Leo XIV started the second day of his trip to Turkey with a visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday. After the mosque visit, Leo met with Turkey's Christian leaders at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. This is the pope's first foreign trip. He will also visit Lebanon. Leo, history's first American pope, is expected to speak in broader terms about peace in the Middle East. Not even Pope Leo XIV was spared from the Airbus software fix that has forced short-term disruptions in commercial flights around the world. Leo is flying along with the papal delegation and press corps aboard an ITA Airways Airbus A320neo charter. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency on Friday ordered airlines to install a new software update on all Airbus A320 family of aircraft. The order came after an analysis found…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago (832+ words) November 29, 2025, 5:45 AM Leo took his shoes off and, in his white sock,s toured the the 17th-century mosque, looking up at its soaring tiled domes and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns as an imam pointed them out to him. The Vatican had said Leo would observe a "brief moment of silent prayer" in the mosque, but he didn't. An imam of the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said he had invited Leo to pray, since the mosque was "Allah's house," but the pope declined. Speaking to reporters after the visit, Tunca said he had told the pope: "It's not my house, not your house, (it's the) house of Allah," he said. He said he told Leo: "If you want, you can worship here,' I said. But he said, "That's OK." "He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel (the) atmosphere…...

2+ day, 21+ min ago (1803+ words) November 28, 2025, 5:32 AM 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 recite each Sunday. Eastern and Western churches were united until the Great Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope....

2+ day, 5+ hour ago (216+ words) November 28, 2025, 2:01 AM Shouts of "Papa Leo" and "Viva il Papa" (Long Live the pope) erupted along with cheering and clapping inside and outside Istanbul's Cathedral of the Holy Spirit as Leo arrived to begin the first full day of his first trip as pope. Leo was meeting with Turkey's Catholic clergy and nuns before taking part in the key reason for his visit. He will commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of one of the most important moments in Christianity: the 325 AD gathering of bishops that produced the Nicaean Creed, a statement of faith that millions still recite today. Catholic, Orthodox and most historic Protestant groups accept the Nicaean Creed. Despite later schisms over doctrine and other factors, Nicaea remains a point of agreement and the most widely accepted creed in Christendom. As a result, celebrating its foundations is an important marker in…...

2+ day, 18+ hour ago (117+ words) With his foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV will become the first American pope on the road. The journey fulfills a visit Pope Francis had hoped to make before his health declined" With his foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV will become the first American pope on the road. The journey fulfills a visit Pope Francis had hoped to make before his health declined, and it gives Leo a prominent platform to speak about peace in the Middle East. In a notable shift from the Vatican's traditional use of Italian, he will address audiences exclusively in English while in Turkey and in both English and French during his time in Lebanon....

2+ day, 20+ hour ago (960+ words) November 27, 2025, 5:12 AM Pope Leo XIV arrived on his first foreign trip to Turkey and later Lebanon, a visit that fulfills the late Pope Francis" plans to mark an important Christian anniversary and bring a message of peace to the region at a crucial time for efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions. In Ankara, Leo will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then travel to Istanbul for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings that will be followed by the Lebanese leg of his trip until Tuesday. Leo"s main reason for traveling to Turkey is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity"s first ecumenical council. In 325 AD, that council hashed out the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday....

3+ day, 2+ hour ago (30+ words) ANKARA (AP) " Pope Leo XIV arrives in Turkey on his first foreign trip. Pope Leo XIV arrives in Turkey on his first foreign trip November 27, 2025, 4:32 AM...

3+ day, 6+ hour ago (915+ words) November 27, 2025, 12:12 AM Pope Leo XIV's first foreign trip, to Turkey and Lebanon, will be packed with opportunities to advance relations with two of the Catholic Church's top priorities: Orthodox Christians and Muslims. It will also give history's first American pope the spotlight to speak in broader terms about peace in the Middle East in languages much of the world can understand: He'll speak exclusively in English while in Turkey, and a combination of English and French in Lebanon, in a departure from the Vatican's traditional lingua franca of Italian. Security will be tight, especially after Israel fired a strike in Beirut to target Hezbollah, just days before Leo arrives. Here's a look at some of the expected highlights of the Nov. 27-Dec. 2 visit to two countries that the late Pope Francis had intended to visit but couldn't as his health…...