Associated Press photo.
Istanbul: Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday but didn't stop to pray, as he opened an intense day of meetings and liturgies with Turkiye's religious leaders and a Mass for the country's tiny Catholic community, the Associated Press reported.
The head of Turkiye's Diyanet religious affairs directorate showed Leo the soaring tiled domes of the 17th-century mosque and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns, as Leo nodded in understanding.
The Vatican had said Leo would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer” there, but it didn't appear that he had. The imam of the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said he had invited Leo to pray, since the mosque was “Allah's house,” but the pope declined.
Speaking to reporters after the visit, Tunca said he had told the pope: "It's not my house, not your house, (it's the) house of Allah,” he said.
He said he told Leo: “'If you want, you can worship here,' I said. But he said, That's OK.”
“He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel (the) atmosphere of the mosque, I think. And was very pleased,” he said.
Later, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: “The pope experienced his visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”
Leo, history's first American pope, was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, as it is officially known, in a gesture of respect to Turkiye's Muslim majority. Leo removed his shoes and walked through the carpeted mosque in his white socks.
Pope Leo started his first international journey as the head of the Catholic Church, travelling to Turkiye. His travel itinerary includes Lebanon as well, according to reports.
His six-day trip to the two Muslim-majority nations is expected to include calls for peace in the Middle East and appeals for unity among long-divided Christian communities.