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Pope Leo XIV began his first full day in Türkiye on Friday by greeting the country’s small Catholic community, receiving loud applause and chants as he set out on a day aimed at strengthening Christians worldwide and pursuing their centuries-old quest for unity.
Shouts of “Papa Leo” and “Viva il Papa” (Long Live the pope) erupted along with cheering and clapping inside and outside Istanbul’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit as Leo arrived to begin the first full day of his first trip as pope.
Leo was meeting with Türkiye’s Catholic clergy and nuns before taking part in the key reason for his visit. He will commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of one of the most important moments in Christianity: the 325 A.D. gathering of bishops that produced the Nicaean Creed, a statement of faith that millions still recite today.
Catholic, Orthodox and most historic Protestant groups accept the Nicaean Creed. Despite later schisms over doctrine and other factors, Nicaea remains a point of agreement and the most widely accepted creed in Christendom.
As a result, celebrating its foundations is an important marker in the centuries-old quest to unite all Christians.
The anniversary commemoration will take place in Iznik, the site of the Council of Nicaea gathering, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Istanbul. Presiding with Leo will be Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians. Türkiye is home to around 180,000 Christians, with an estimated 30,000-36,000 Catholics.
Leo arrived in Türkiye on Thursday, emphasizing a message of peace as he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The pope is the fifth pontiff to visit Türkiye, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014. On Sunday, Leo will head to religiously diverse Lebanon, a nation that has been crushed by a devastating economic and political crisis since 2019 and which has been the target of repeated bombings by Israel in recent days, despite a cease-fire.
