VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo will travel to Turkey and Lebanon in late November, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, in the first visit outside Italy by the new leader of the 1.4-billion-member global Catholic Church.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, will visit Turkey from November 27-30 before heading to Lebanon from November 30 to December 2, where he is expected to speak about the plight of Christians in the Middle East and to make appeals for peace across the region.
Leo was elected by the world’s Catholic cardinals on May 8 to replace the late Pope Francis, who had planned to visit both countries but was unable to go because of health issues.
The pope is expected to meet in Turkey with Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians, for celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of a major early Church council, which took place in Nicaea, now called Iznik.
“It is profoundly symbolical that Pope Leo … will visit (the patriarch) on his first official journey,” Rev. John Chryssavgis, an advisor to Bartholomew, told Reuters.
“Pope Leo is doubtless seeking to express and affirm his identity as a Christian in a world of many different creeds, where all people, regardless of religion and race, are called to live together in mutual understanding,” said the priest.
Travelling abroad has become a major part of the modern papacy, with popes seeking to meet local Catholics, spread the faith, and conduct international diplomacy.
A new pope’s first travels are usually seen as an indication of the issues the pontiff wants to highlight during his reign.
Leo had been expected for months to travel to Turkey for his first trip abroad, but the additional visit to Lebanon only emerged in discussions in recent weeks.
Vatican officials say the pontiff wants to make appeals for peace and commemorate at the Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Alvise Armellini)
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