Pope Leo lands in Turkey on first foreign visit

Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Ankara for his first overseas trip since assuming the papacy in May․

The 68-year-old pontiff was greeted at an Ankara airport by senior Turkish officials on Thursday before heading to the Presidential Complex for a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The four-day visit to Turkey will also take the pope to Istanbul and Turkey’s northwestern town of Iznik. On Friday, in Iznik, the ancient site of Nicaea, he is scheduled to attend a commemoration marking the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark gathering where early Christian leaders agreed on the fundamental doctrines of the faith.

His last stop will be Istanbul, where he is scheduled to attend an ecumenical prayer service with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I․