Pope Leo XIV visits Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on the second day of his trip to Turkiye

Pope Leo XIV started the second day of his trip to Turkiye with a visit to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Saturday.

Leo was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkiye’s Muslim majority.

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.

Pope visits Blue Mosque

Leo visited the iconic mosque in Istanbul, where the head of Turkiye’s Diyanet religious affairs directorate showed him the structure’s soaring blue-tiled dome.

The Vatican said Leo would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer,” but it wasn’t clear if he had.

Leo was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkiye’s Muslim majority.