Türkiye and Lebanon. Those are the first two destinations outside Italy to which the Pope will travel XIV lion. The trip will take place at the end of November and early December, as the Vatican has announced on Tuesday through a statement.
The Pontiff will move to Turkey between November 27 and 30 and then will be in Lebanon until December 2, where it is expected to talk about the difficult situation facing Christians in the Middle East and do A call to peace throughout the regionmarked by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Leo XIV, chosen on May 8, will meet presumably in Türkiye with Bartolomé I, Patriarch of Constantinople and leader of the Orthodox Church, to commemorate The 1700 years of the first ecumenical council of the history of Christianityconvened by Emperor Constantine I in Nicea, currently the city of Iznik.
“It is deeply symbolic that Pope Leo XIV visits (to the patriarch) on his first official trip,” he told Reuters The Reverend John Chryssavgis, advisor to Bartolomé I. “Without a doubt, seeks to express and affirm his identity as a Christian in A world of very diverse creedswhere all people, regardless of their religion or race, are called to live together in mutual understanding, “he added.
The trip to Izmik had been scheduled by Pope Francis for May but the Argentine pontiff died in April at age 88. Move to Lebanon had been Another dream of the late Pontiffbut he always postponed for the political situation in the country.
Francisco visited Türkiye in 2014, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while the last Pope who visited Lebanon was Benedict XVI, in September 2012.
Pope’s first trips are usually interpreted as an indication of the issues he wants to highlight during his pontificate. It was expected for months the announcement that Leo XIV would go to Türkiye, but the additional visit to Lebanon has materialized in conversations in recent weeks.
From the Vatican it is affirmed that the Pontiff wants to make appeals to peace and commemorate the chemical explosion of 2020 in the port of Beirut, which caused more than 200 dead.