Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Turkey on his first trip abroad as pope, where he will mark a historic Christian anniversary before traveling to Lebanon, just days after Israeli airstrikes on Beirut.
The pope summed up his message en route to Ankara by saying that "all men, women can truly be brothers and sisters, in spite of differences, in spite of different religions, in spite of different beliefs."
A major moment of the trip will be in Iznik, the ancient city of Nicaea, where Pope Leo and other Christian leaders will mark the 1,700th anniversary of the council that produced the Nicene Creed in 325 CE.
The trips were first planned by the late Pope Francis, yet the message of building bridges is one Pope Leo has made his own since his first moments on the balcony of St. Peter’s in May.
While Pope Francis was seen as a bold visionary who didn’t always seek consensus, leaving the Church partly divided, Pope Leo has taken a different approach—keeping some progressive ideals while listening carefully to traditionalists.
Robert Prevost is the first North American to be elected pope. A symbolic and historic choice for the Catholic Church, his accession as leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics reflects the shifting geopolitical powers of the day, and signals a shift in the world order of the Church. Prevost was not a front-runner and his election surprised some, not least American citizens who'd gathered in St. Peter's Square during the conclave. So, who is the man now known as Pope Leo XIV, and what is his message?
Click through the following gallery and relive the moment Robert Prevost became the 267th pope.