why is Leo XIV now going to Türkiye?
For his first trip outside Italy since his election to the pontificate last May, Pope Leo XIV decided to go to Türkiye. This choice may seem surprising given that the country between East and West has only around thirty thousand Catholic faithful, among a population of nearly 84 million inhabitants.
This decision actually responds to ecumenical considerations, that is to say dialogue between Christian confessions. On the one hand, the year 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a city now called Iznik and located 90○km southeast of Istanbul as the crow flies.
There, in 325, representatives of the different branches of Christianity met to define together the contents of their common faith in Jesus Christ. In particular, they agreed on how to establish the date of Easter, in order to celebrate the Resurrection at the same time.
The hope of greater unity
Some seventeen centuries and schisms later, the Christian world has divided and no longer celebrates Easter at the same time. On the other hand, particularly since the 1960s and the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has become closer to other branches of Christianity, notably those of the Orthodox world. If the Christian world is not expected to celebrate Easter in unison next year, it is now able to come together and commemorate past unity together with a view to the hoped-for future unity.
Furthermore, Leo XIV’s choice to make this trip at the end of November is not insignificant. In 2014, Pope Francis visited Istanbul at the same time of year. Benedict XVI did the same in 2006 and John Paul II in 1979.
The lifting of anathemas
Why this date? Because on November 30, the feast of Saint Andrew, brother of Saint Peter, and under whose protection the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is placed, is celebrated. Coming to Istanbul at the end of November thus allows Peter’s successor to celebrate the feast of Saint Andrew with the man who is thus considered his successor. This is also a gesture of friendship and ecumenical recognition between Catholics and Orthodox. Likewise, the Patriarch of Constantinople is officially represented each year at the Mass celebrated by the Pope on June 29, the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul.
Finally, the year 2025 also marks another important anniversary: 60 years ago, on December 7, 1965, the Bishop of Rome – then Pope Paul VI – and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople proceeded to lift the anathemas in force since the schism of 1054 between the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople. If this decision did not restore full communion on both sides, it opened a path towards it and indicated that it was now achievable. Since then, Catholics and Orthodox have been engaged in a theological-pastoral dialogue to achieve this.
