Pope Leo visits the Blue Mosque in Istanbul during his first overseas trip as pontiff

Pope Leo visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday, in his first visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship, during his four-day visit to Türkiye.

The Blue Mosque is officially named for Sultan Ahmed I, leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617, who oversaw its construction. 

The first US pope bowed slightly before entering the mosque and was led on a tour of the expansive complex, able to hold 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul.

Leo smiled during the 20-minute visit and joked with one of his guides, the mosque's lead muezzin — the official who leads the daily calls to prayer.

The Vatican appeared surprised that Leo had not stopped to pray during the visit and that he had not been welcomed to the mosque by the head of Türkiye's state-run religious organisation, known as the diyanet, as had been planned.

About three hours after the visit, the Vatican released a press statement saying both the prayer and the welcome had occurred, although they had not.

The Vatican press office said the release had been sent in error.

Leo's first trip as the Pope closely watched

The muezzin, Askin Musa Tunca, told journalists after the mosque visit that he asked Leo during the tour if he wished to pray for a moment, but the pope said he preferred to just visit the mosque.

The Vatican said in a statement immediately after the visit that Leo undertook the tour "in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and for the faith of those who gather there in prayer."

While Leo did not appear to pray during the tour, he did joke with Tunca.

As the group was leaving the building, the pope noticed he was being guided out a door that is usually an entrance, where a sign says: "No exit."

"It says no exit," Leo said, smiling.

Tunca responded: "You don't have to go out, you can stay here."

The pope is visiting Türkiye until Sunday on his first overseas trip as pontiff, which also includes a visit to Lebanon.

Leo is being closely watched as he makes his first speeches overseas and interacts for the first time with people outside mainly Catholic Italy.

No visit to Hagia Sophia 

The 17th-century structure is located across from the Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine-era cathedral that Leo did not visit, in a break from past papal trips to Türkiye.

The Hagia Sophia, one of Christianity's most important places of worship for about a millennium, was made a mosque for 500 years after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

It was converted to a museum by Türkiye's secular republic more than 70 years ago but turned back into a mosque by President Tayyip Erdogan in 2020.

The Vatican has not commented on Leo's decision not to visit the Hagia Sophia.

The late Pope Francis, who visited the structure during a 2014 trip to Türkiye, said in 2020 that he was "very pained" that it had been made a mosque again.

Leo chose mainly Muslim Türkiye as his first overseas destination to mark the 1,700th anniversary of a landmark early Church council there that produced the Nicene Creed, still used by most of the world's Christians today.

At a ceremony on Friday to commemorate the Church council with Christian leaders from across the Middle East, the pope condemned violence in the name of religion and urged Christians to overcome centuries of heated divisions.

Speaking to senior clerics from countries including Türkiye, Egypt, Syria and Israel, Leo called it a scandal that the world's 2.6 billion Christians were not more united.

Leo repeated his condemnation of religious violence on Saturday at a Mass with Catholics at Istanbul's Volkswagen Arena, attended by about 4,000 people.

He also met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who is based in Istanbul and is the spiritual leader of the world's 260 million Orthodox Christians.

In a joint declaration, the two leaders lamented the number of bloody conflicts around the world and pleaded for civil and political leaders to pursue peace.

Reuters