Pope Leo XIV’s First Visit to Turkey
The Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV, at the invitation of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey, and the country’s senior religious authorities, will make his first foreign trip to Turkey from November 27 to 30.
Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, confirmed the news and said that during this trip the Pope will also visit the historic city of İznik, which this year is hosting special ceremonies marking the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.
Bruni further added that after concluding his visit to Turkey, the Pope will travel to Lebanon from November 30 to December 2.
With this announcement, months of speculation about the Pope’s trip to Turkey came to an end, and the program was officially confirmed. Earlier, the late Pope Francis had expressed his desire to attend this historic ceremony in 2024, but after his death in April 2025, the final decision was left to the new Pope.
Pope Leo XIV, who was elected in May 2025 as the 267th leader of the Catholic Church, will mark his first official foreign presence with this trip.
Thus, he will become the fifth Pope to visit Turkey. Before him, Pope Paul VI (1967), Pope John Paul II (1979), Pope Benedict XVI (2006), and Pope Francis (2014) had visited the country.
