December 2, 2025 // Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo Focuses on Ecumenism, Peace During First Foreign Trip to Turkey, Lebanon

OSV NEWS

BEIRUT (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV ended the first foreign trip of his pontificate – to Turkey and Lebanon – by making what he called “a heartfelt appeal: May the attacks and hostilities cease.”

“We must recognize that armed struggle brings no benefit,” he said at the Beirut airport before returning to Rome on Tuesday, December 2. “While weapons are lethal, negotiation, mediation, and dialogue are constructive. Let us all choose peace as a way, and not just as a goal!”

Throughout his stay in Lebanon from November 30 through December 2, the pope repeatedly called for peace, justice, and a concerted effort by all Lebanese to build a better future for themselves and their families.

In fact, after Mass and before praying the Angelus on December 2, he implored “the international community once again to spare no effort in promoting processes of dialogue and reconciliation,” and he appealed “to those who hold political and social authority here and in all countries marked by war and violence: Listen to the cry of your peoples who are calling for peace.”

“The Middle East needs new approaches in order to reject the mindset of revenge and violence, to overcome political, social and religious divisions, and to open new chapters in the name of reconciliation and peace,” he said. “We need to change course. We need to educate our hearts for peace.”

The pope began the day visiting a Catholic-run psychiatric hospital and then praying at the Beirut port that was site of the chemical explosion in 2020 that killed more than 200 people, injured some 7,000, and left an estimated 300,000 people displaced.

“I prayed for all the victims, and I carry with me the pain, and the thirst for truth and justice, of so many families, of an entire country,” the pope said.

In his homily at Mass, Pope Leo said the beauty of Lebanon “is overshadowed by poverty and suffering, the wounds that have marked your history. In this regard, I just visited the port in order to pray at the site of the explosion.”

The faith and charity of Lebanese Christians, the willingness to dialogue and collaborate with members of other religions are all “small lights that shine in the night, small shoots that sprout forth, and small seeds planted in the arid garden in this era of history,” he said.

“Cultivate these shoots,” the pope told them. That is the way to avoid discouragement and “to not give in to the logic of violence and the idolatry of money, and to not resign ourselves in the face of the spreading evil.”

“Lebanon, stand up,” he said. “Be a home of justice and fraternity! Be a prophetic sign of peace for the whole of the Levant,” a term referring to the area that borders the Eastern Mediterranean and traditionally includes Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Jordan.

In the first meeting of his trip, on Friday, November 28, Pope Leo met with leaders of Turkey’s small and varied Catholic communities and asked them to embrace their “littleness” as they strive to be a leaven of God’s love in Turkish society.

According to Vatican statistics distributed for the pope’s trip, Turkey has about 33,000 Catholics – less than 1 percent of the population. They belong to the Latin, Chaldean, Armenian, and Syriac Catholic churches.

Pope Leo insisted that the “littleness is the Church’s true strength. It does not lie in her resources or structures, nor do the fruits of her mission depend on numbers, economic power, or social influence.” While the Church in Turkey is small, he said, it is “fruitful like a seed and leaven of the Kingdom.”’

Later in the day, Pope Leo attended an ecumenical prayer service hosted by Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and included a recitation of the Nicene Creed at Iznik, site of the ancient Nicaea, about 80 miles southeast of Istanbul. With the Greek Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem or their representatives, and with representatives of other Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant churches, Pope Leo marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea – the primary motive for his first foreign trip as pope.

Pope Leo told his fellow Christian leaders that at a time when humanity is “afflicted by violence and conflict,” the world “is crying out for reconciliation.” He added: “The desire for full communion among all believers in Jesus Christ is always accompanied by the search for fraternity among all human beings,” he said. “In the Nicene Creed, we profess our faith ‘in one God, the Father.’ Yet, it would not be possible to invoke God as Father if we refused to recognize as brothers and sisters all other men and women, who are created in the image of God.”

With many of the Christian leaders, especially the Oriental Orthodox, coming from nations that recently faced or are facing war and persecution, Pope Leo said Christians must give concrete witness to their belief that all people are children of one God and therefore brothers and sisters to each other.

“Furthermore, we must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism,” he said. “Instead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation.”

On Saturday, November 29, Pope Leo, like his two immediate predecessors, visited the so-called Blue Mosque in Istanbul, where he spent about 20 minutes inside but did not appear to pause for prayer as Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis had done.

The Vatican press office said afterward that Pope Leo visited the mosque “in a spirit of reflection and attentive listening, with deep respect for the place and for the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”

Pope Leo also spoke to Christian leaders in Turkey, saying he hoped they could meet in Jerusalem in 2033 to celebrate together the 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus. And, later in a joint declaration with Orthodox Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, he called on Christians of the East and West to finally agree on a common date for Easter. The pope and patriarch also appealed for an end to war.