Pope Leo XIV disembarks from his plane upon his arrival at Istanbul Ataturk Airport in Turkey on the first overseas trip of his papacy. Photo / Berk Ozkan, AFP
In the largest event yet of his inaugural foreign trip, Pope Leo XIV spoke to a few thousand faithful in the Muslim-majority metropolis of Istanbul of unity, of “breaking down the walls of prejudice”, of rejecting “darkness” in favour of “light”.
But it wasn’t just what the Pope said - it was how he said it.
In a small Mass by the standard of papal travel, he didn’t preach loudly or gesticulate. He spoke in the calm, easy tone of a neighbourhood parish priest.
To hear Pope Leo, he makes you lean in.
His predecessor, Pope Francis, could be meandering, off-the-cuff. Leo stays on script.
Francis was blessed with - or suffered from, depending on whom you asked - an excess of personality. Leo is low-key.
Francis was given to gestures that made headlines: washing the feet of drug addicts, praying with an imam at Istanbul’s famed Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
Leo, much less so. He surveyed the vast structure, known as the Blue Mosque, with a legion of cameras trained on him.
When invited to pray in front of onlooking journalists, Leo, according to a mosque official who accompanied him, politely declined.
On his first international trip, the understated persona of the Pope is emerging. The 70-year-old from Chicago’s South Side is positioning himself as an antidote to an era of towering egos.
As he wrapped up 3½ days in Turkey before moving on to Lebanon today, in his speeches and actions, he emphasised the opposite of self-aggrandisement.
At the Vatican, he has celebrated Mass before tens of thousands. On his trip, he is talking about the importance of “littleness”.
The man revealing himself - as many in Vatican City already knew - is a no-bluster Midwesterner, a quiet Catholic missionary who never expected to lead the world’s largest church.
He has risen to the occasion with endearing self-effacement, and a slightly embarrassed “who, me?” smile.
He listens as much, if not more, than he speaks. His body language still suggests some level of discomfort with instant fame.
He is not so much the reluctant pope as a man who seems bent on lowering the tone.
Senior Vatican officials are giddy at his performance; cardinals are privately patting themselves on the back that they picked the right man.
Here is a pope who speaks in English, and talks plainly, and who more of the world can understand.
He does not delve into convoluted parables or arcane theology but delivers concise speeches. They are spoken with the reserve of a monk whose simplest gestures - such as the indelible moment when he blessed a 7-year-old on his birthday - seem genuine, uncontrived.
Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the media of the Holy See, said the Pope’s style, and focus on “smallness”, spoke volumes.
“Every gesture of this journey testifies that the Church is at the service of humanity and looks at the world through the eyes of the little ones and the humble, dialoguing with everyone and seeking to build bridges in every direction,” he said.
Even as he speaks softly, Leo appears to have a sense of urgency.
We live in dangerous times, Leo proclaimed in Turkey, perhaps more dangerous than we think.
Leo stood with Orthodox and other Christian leaders on the banks of Lake Iznik, ancient Nicaea, to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the historic Christian council to settle disputes over the nature of Jesus Christ.
Leo used the moment to focus on the present as “a period of history marked by many tragic signs, in which people are subjected to countless threats to their very dignity”.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, was picked up and removed by authorities in Iznik a day before Leo was scheduled to arrive there.
According to Turkish media reports, he said he had wanted to speak with Leo.
Leo signed a joint statement yesterday with Bartholomew, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, who leads the Eastern Orthodox Church, which split with the church of Rome in the Middle Ages.
They acknowledged “obstacles” but pledged further dialogue “toward the hoped-for restoration of full Communion between our sister Churches.”
They did not agree, as some had hoped, to a joint date for the celebration of Easter.
They said instead they would continue to work towards a “possible solution.”
Along with a message of peace and unity, Leo is zeroing in on the importance of human dignity.
He has criticised the United States Trump Administration for its deadly military strikes off the coast of Venezuela and “inhuman” treatment of migrants.
On the first day of his trip, he stood a few feet from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who during his two decades in power has moved the country increasingly towards one-man rule, and challenged the notion that “might is right”.
He is winning fans in Turkey and not all of them Catholic. Laki Vingas, a prominent member of the local Greek Orthodox community, attended a prayer meeting at Istanbul’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit with hundreds of Christian leaders and believers.
Vingas, a business executive, said he saw Leo’s trip as empowering the small Christian community in Muslim Turkey. He noted that Leo also preached respect for Turkey: He urged expatriate priests, deacons and other church workers who come from other countries to learn Turkish and adapt to their home.
Vingas noted the Pope’s willingness to greet people one by one. What he really took away from the event was glimpse into the Pope’s personality. His quietness, Vingas said, is “very intentional”.
“He will not invest in impressing you,” he said. “He’s not a man with big charisma, [someone who is] trying to impress with smiles and hugs and big” words.
His unassuming style, he said, makes you “re-evaluate” your beliefs.
The first American pope is wielding English as a powerful communication tool on this trip, sharing his message in a language that serves as a tongue of commerce, tourism and popular culture in much of the world.
He doesn’t refer often to his own origins; he opted, for example, to begin his travels on Thanksgiving Day as if it were any other. The constant presence of his youthful-faced senior aide, the Rev Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, is also serving as a frequent reminder of Peru, where Leo served as a missionary and bishop and became a citizen.
Few backdrops can be more humbling for a Catholic pontiff than Istanbul, the gleaming city straddling two continents where soaring minarets stand as a constant reminder of the fall of Constantinople, the heart of Byzantine Christendom, to Muslim Turks.
Leo, only the fifth pope to visit Turkey, is treading with religious sensitivity, hailing the country’s historic significance.
Thus far, the Pope is also proving himself more circumspect than some of his predecessors.
In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI, still reeling from a surge of rage in the Muslim world following his controversial comments on the Prophet Muhammad, held a moment of reverent meditation at the Blue Mosque that was read by many as prayer.
Francis, visiting in 2014, faced Mecca and, standing alongside the Grand Mufti, offered what the Vatican described then as a “moment of silent adoration”.
At the weekend, a crow cawed as Pope Leo, flanked by Muslim leaders, took his shoes off respectfully and entered the domed splendour of the mosque. He moved slowly around the room, listening.
Journalists trained their cameras on the Pope, awaiting a photo-worthy moment. Aşgın Musa Tunca, who issues the call to prayer at the mosque, said he invited Leo to pray.
“I offered him, ‘if you like to worship, you can worship here,’” Tunca said. “But he said, ‘no, I’m just going to look around.’”
The Vatican appeared caught off guard. An earlier communique that mentioned the Pope observing a “brief moment of prayer” was quickly updated. “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 there in prayer.”
Just as important as what he did is what he didn’t do. He skipped a visit to the Hagia Sophia, once the world’s largest Christian church, converted in 2020 from a museum to a mosque.
“This could perhaps be a sign of a boycott,” Enes Sarıtaş, a 26-year-old graduate in Islamic theology, said in nearby Sultanahmet Square.
“The Hagia Sophia is perhaps more important to Christians than to Muslims. We would have expected it, but he is the guest, and we must respect his decision.”
Leo’s visit, he said, like past papal trips to Turkey, was a “a good thing”.
“They demonstrate that despite the differences in religions and ideas, there is respect between people.”
- Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report.
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