Istanbul — Pope Leo XIV visited the city’s historic Blue Mosque on Saturday, marking his first tour of a Muslim place of worship since his election. While the pontiff removed his shoes as a sign of respect before entering, he did not participate in prayer.
Accompanied by local Muslim leaders, the Pope was given a tour of the 17th-century architectural masterpiece, which is renowned for the turquoise ceramic tiles that adorn its interior walls and dome.
Muezzin Aşgın Tunca, an official who calls Muslims to prayer and was among the Pope’s guides, said he invited the pontiff to worship. “I offered [for] him, if he would like to worship here, but he said, ‘No, I am just going to look around,’” Tunca recounted, adding that he had been previously informed that the Pope was expected to pray during the visit.
The situation was further complicated when the Vatican press office erroneously issued a statement claiming the Pope had observed “a brief moment of prayer” and was welcomed by the head of Turkey’s state-run religious body. Neither event occurred. The Vatican later retracted the press release, explaining it had been sent in error and was based on text from a booklet prepared before the trip.
Pope Leo is the third pontiff to visit the Blue Mosque, where the question of papal prayer has been a focus of past visits. In 2014, Pope Francis stood for two minutes in silent prayer, while in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI engaged in what the Vatican described as “silent meditation.”
The first papal visit to a mosque was by Pope John Paul II in Syria in 2001, part of a broader Catholic Church effort over the past 60 years to foster dialogue with the Muslim world.
Following Saturday’s tour, a Vatican spokesperson clarified that the Pope “visited the Mosque in silence, in a spirit of reflection and listening, with profound respect for the place and the faith of those gathered here in prayer.” The visit comes after Pope Leo recently commemorated the 60th anniversary of a landmark church declaration on inter-religious cooperation.
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