Rome – The first international apostolic journey of Leo XIV has concluded, an itinerary lasting from November 27 to December 2, 2025, built around a clear symbolic and historical objective: commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea I. The Pontiff chose the very heart of the conciliar sites, reaching Iznik, where he presided over an ecumenical prayer meeting near the excavations of the ancient basilica of St. Neophytus, recalling the unity of the Churches and the significance of the Nicene–Constantinopolitan Creed as a shared foundation of the Christian faith.
The first institutional stage unfolded in Ankara, with a meeting at the Presidential Palace with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discussions with political and civil authorities. In Istanbul, the Pope balanced interreligious dialogueand ecclesial diplomacy: the visit to the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque), the signing of the Declaration with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchate, the ecumenical luncheon, and the joint blessing marked the most intense moments of the passage through Türkiye.
In Lebanon, Leo XIV shifted the center of gravity toward listening to social wounds and generational hope: prayer at the tomb of St. Charbel Makhlūf in Annaya, the meeting with the ecclesial body in Harissa, the embrace with the Catholic Patriarchs, and above all the encounter with young people in the square of Bkerké. A powerful image remains from the visit to Jal ed Dib: the Pope prayed before the monument honoring the victims of the 2020 Port of Beirut explosion, and listened to families’ calls for truth and justice.
This journey also introduced a methodological novelty that challenges the relationship between the press and the pontificate: while flying toward Beirut on November 30, the Pope moved to the rear section of the plane to greet journalists, and answered in advance two questions from Turkish reporters, breaking the practice established by Pope Francis, who had confined the press conference to the return flight, at the end of the apostolic journey. The Pope showed a freedom of action in his dealings with the media entourage, unsettling a certain storytelling system: that of Vaticanists accustomed to the recent model in which Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) set timing, messages, and framing through a strongly centralized and pre-planned method, crafted as a built communication strategy aimed at shaping how events were interpreted.
Traveling to Rome
On the return flight to Rome, however, Leo XIV later welcomed the full body of questions in a much longer conversation with the Vaticanists on board.