Pope Leo XIV sets Middle East trip to Turkiye and Lebanon for peace push

Shafaq News – Vatican City

Pope Leo XIV will make his first apostolic trip to Turkiye and Lebanon later this year, a visit aimed at promoting peace in the Middle East and showing solidarity with the region’s Christian communities, the Vatican announced on Tuesday.

The Pope—the first American-born pontiff—will travel to Turkiye from November 27 to 30, then continue to Lebanon from November 30 to December 2, according to a Vatican statement.

Pope Leo will travel to Türkiye and Lebanon in late November and early December of this year.https://t.co/JTZQf7jpXD

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) October 7, 2025

In Turkiye, he will mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, one of early Christianity’s defining gatherings, held in what is now Iznik. The Pope is also expected to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Both trips come at the invitation of civil and church leaders. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, a Maronite Christian, formally invited the pontiff during a June meeting at the Vatican. In a statement carried by the Lebanese National News Agency, Aoun hailed the visit as “a moment of unity and hope,” reaffirming Lebanon’s role as a land of coexistence and religious freedom.

Lebanon, home to one of the largest Christian populations in the Middle East, has long been a focus of Vatican concern amid political paralysis and economic collapse. The Pope is expected to pay tribute to the victims of the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, whose memory he honored in a message last August.

The Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon said it welcomes the visit “with great joy,” expressing hope that it will renew peace and strengthen national cohesion.

The last papal visit to the Middle East was made by Pope Francis in 2022, when he toured Bahrain to attend the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue and met with Muslim and Christian leaders. Earlier, in March 2021, he made a historic trip to Iraq, becoming the first pontiff to visit the country. During that visit, he stopped in Baghdad, Najaf, Ur, Erbil, Mosul, and Qaraqosh, delivering messages of peace, reconciliation, and unity among Iraq’s diverse religious communities following years of conflict and persecution.

Read more: Implicit and explicit messages of the Pope’s Iraqi-Kurdish visit