ANKARA, Turkey — Pope Leo XIV touched down in the conflict-ridden Middle East on the first international trip of his papacy, urging peace and hoping to help the Catholic Church heal centuries-old divisions with other religions and denominations.
As his fellow countrymen celebrate Thanksgiving, the first American pontiff’s plate will be full on a six-day tour of Turkey and Lebanon that will be closely scrutinized. He plans to meet with religious and political leaders, lead Mass in both countries and try to provide a boost to long-suffering Christian communities throughout the region.
Ahead of his trip, Leo shared a Thanksgiving message with NBC News in which he encouraged all people “to say ‘thank you’ to someone” and “to recognize that we have all received so many gifts, first and foremost the gift of life.”
Gifts were shared aboard his flight to the Turkish capital, Ankara, including a pecan pie handed to him by an NBC News correspondent. Leo told journalists that along with other church leaders, he hoped “to announce, transmit, proclaim how important peace is throughout the world and to invite all people to come together to search for greater unity.”
Later, in his first overseas speech since his election in May to lead the 1.4 billion-member church, Leo told Turkish political leaders that the world was experiencing “a heightened level of conflict on the global level, fueled by prevailing strategies of economic and military power.”
“We must in no way give in to this,” he added. The future of humanity is at stake.”
Some had speculated that the Chicago-born Leo might choose the U.S. for his first trip, or Peru, where he served for many years as a missionary and later as a bishop and archbishop, becoming a naturalized citizen in 2015.
Pope Leo speaks with journalists en route to Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday.Baris Seckin / Anadolu via Getty Images
But for Miles Pattenden, a Catholic Church historian at the U.K.’s University of Oxford, the choice of the Middle East was “not such a surprise,” and it was sending out a message that the region “is the heart of Christianity.”
Turkey, where Leo will stay until Sunday, was the “obvious choice” because it was the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council, Pattenden told NBC News in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Convened by Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the meeting of bishops and church leaders “produced the Nicaean creed, which is the standard statement of what Christians believe,” including the affirmation that Jesus was the son of God, Pattenden said.
He added that it was “absolutely foundational” to what Christians, including Catholics, believe today.
Leo will pray with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the site of the 325 A.D. gathering in what is known today as Iznik, before they sign a joint declaration in a sign of Christian unity.
“We all understand that 1,000 years of division has inflicted a deep wound that cannot be healed easily,” Bartholomew told the respected Greek daily Kathimerini recently, according to The Associated Press.
