Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque – extensively referred to as the Blue Mosque – in his first go to to a Muslim place of worship since he took up the papacy in Could.
The Pontiff was seen bowing as he entered the constructing, however it’s reported he didn’t pray on the mosque, as his two predecessors had achieved.
The Vatican mentioned in an announcement Leo undertook the tour “in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and for the religion of those that collect there in prayer”.
The Pope is on a four-day journey to Turkey, after which he’ll go to Lebanon.
He was later welcomed to St George’s Cathedral in Istanbul by the pinnacle of the Jap Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew.
The Blue Mosque is formally named for Sultan Ahmed I, chief of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617, who oversaw its development.
It’s adorned with hundreds of blue and turquoise ceramic tiles and receives thousands and thousands of holiday makers every year.
Pope Francis prayed there in 2014, and Pope Benedict XVI did so in 2006.
The primary pope to formally enter a mosque was John Paul II, who made historical past when he visited the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in 2001.
The papal go to to Turkey and Lebanon had been deliberate by late Pope Francis, however its theme of constructing bridges was embraced by Pope Leo from the second he stepped on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica after his election in Could.
Firstly of his journey, he warned that the world shouldn’t give into “a heightened degree of battle on the worldwide degree”, including that “the way forward for humanity is at stake”.
In Lebanon – the place an estimated third of the nation is Christian – he’s anticipated to fulfill extra religion leaders and listen to from younger individuals.
On the ultimate day of the journey, he’ll have a good time Mass on the Beirut waterfront on the website of the 2020 port explosion, praying for the greater than 200 individuals who had been killed and seven,000 others injured.
