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Vatican City, Nov 27, 2025 / 04:57 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV arrived in Turkey Thursday on his first international apostolic journey. The wide-ranging trip — spanning historic ecumenical encounters, deeply symbolic gestures of prayer, and pastoral visits to Christian communities under pressure — is expected to highlight the pope’s priorities of unity, peace, and encouragement across a region marked by both ancient faith and present suffering.

During his flight from Rome, the pope told reporters that he hoped his trip would be an occasion to "proclaim how important peace is throughout the world, and to invite all people to come together, to search for greater unity, greater harmony, and to look for the ways that all men and women can truly be brothers and sisters."

He also wished American reporters in particular a Happy Thanksgiving.

The papal plane arrived in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, around 12:30 pm local time. Upon arrival, the pope was scheduled to visit the Atatürk Mausoleum, built in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of the Turkish Republic. He will then travel to the Presidential Palace for a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and an address to authorities, civil society representatives, and the diplomatic corps. The pope will not remain overnight in Ankara but will continue by air to Istanbul the same day.

Ecumenically focused visit

The visit to Turkey centers on the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. The pope will participate in an ecumenical prayer service in Iznik, the site of the historic council that articulated Christian teaching on the nature of Christ and affirmed the Nicene Creed. The council also issued disciplinary norms and established a common date for Easter.

During his stay, the pope will take part in several ceremonies and is expected to sign a joint declaration with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. He will also visit Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque.

A notable omission from the pope’s itinerary is Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine church-turned-mosque that the Turkish government designated a museum open to all faiths in the 20th century. Pope Francis visited the monument in 2014, on the last papal visit to Turkey, but said he was “deeply pained” when the government turned it back into a mosque six years later. Patriarch Bartholomew also protested the change.

Pope Leo’s visit carries particular significance for Turkey’s small Christian community, which looks to the pope for support and encouragement. The motto for the visit is “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” The Catholic community has witnessed several attacks in past decades, such as the killing of Father Andrea Santoro in Trabzon in 2006 and the assassination of the Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, Bishop Luigi Padovese, in 2010. In 2024, two people attacked Santa Maria Church in Istanbul’s Sariyer district during Holy Mass, leading to the death of one person attending the service. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the last attack.

Christians have also been facing, like the rest of the population, the economic consequences of severe inflation in the Turkish lira, the national currency, in recent years. They have likewise endured the devastating effects of the earthquake that shook southern Turkey in February 2023.

A message of peace for Lebanon

After Turkey, the pope will travel to Lebanon. Speaking to journalists last month, he said he would have there “the opportunity to proclaim once again the message of peace in the Middle East, in a country that has suffered so much.”

Leo’s itinerary in Lebanon highlights both the nation’s deep Christian roots and its recent trauma. The pope will visit the tomb of St. Charbel, a revered Maronite saint, in Annaya, meet with young people outside the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke, and spend time in silent prayer at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 236 people and injured over 7,000, according to Human Rights Watch.

Lebanon’s Christian community has endured years of hardship — from the 2019 economic collapse to the 2020 blast, as well as ongoing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah since October 2023. Though weakened by emigration and crisis, Christians remain central to the nation’s political and social life: the president, army commander, and central bank governor must all be Maronite Catholics, and Parliament is evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.

Many Lebanese Christians have left the country in search of stability and economic opportunity. For those who remain, the pope’s presence is widely seen as a sign of hope, particularly during the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

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CNA Staff, Nov 26, 2025 / 22:12 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV is embarking on the first apostolic journey of his papacy to Turkey and Lebanon from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2. Follow here for live updates of his historic trip:

Pope Leo XIV departs from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport as he begins his first Apostolic Journey, which takes him to Türkiye and Lebanon to offer a sign of unity and peace.

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Rome Newsroom, Nov 26, 2025 / 19:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, until now the archbishop of Łódź, as the new archbishop of Krakow, the archdiocese in Poland that was formerly led by Pope St. John Paul II.

The cardinal succeeds Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski, 76, whose resignation has been accepted by the Holy Father, as reported by the Vatican Press Office on Nov. 26.

Ryś was born on Feb. 9, 1964, in Krakow and is 61 years old. He will lead the archdiocese where Karol Wojtyła, who would later become Pope St. John Paul II, served as a priest, auxiliary bishop, and archbishop from 1946 to 1978, the year he was elected Successor of St. Peter.

Who is the new archbishop of Krakow in Poland?

Ryś studied at the major seminary in Krakow and was ordained a priest on May 22, 1988. He worked on and received a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Theological Academy of Krakow (1989-1994).

He has held, among others, the following positions: parochial vicar of Saints Margaret and Catherine in Kęty (1988-1989); professor of Church history at the Pontifical Theological Academy in Krakow which would later become the John Paul II Pontifical University (1994-2011); rector of the major seminary (2007-2011); and president of the Conference of Rectors of Major Seminaries in Poland (2010-2011).

He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Krakow on July 16, 2011, and received episcopal consecration on Sept. 28 that year. On Sept. 14, 2017, he was appointed archbishop of Łódź.

Pope Francis created him a cardinal at the consistory of Sept. 30, 2023.

Within the Polish Bishops Conference, he presides over the Council for Religious Dialogue and the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism, according to a statement from the Polish episcopate. He is also a member of the Council for Ecumenism, the Council for Culture and the Protection of Cultural Heritage, and the Council for the Family.

At the Vatican, he is a member of the Dicastery for Bishops and the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

His episcopal motto is: Virtus in infirmitate (Strength in weakness).

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 26, 2025 / 18:04 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV praised “the wonderful adventure” of becoming parents that many families are choosing to embark on today, even in a time marked by economic and social difficulties.

The pontiff dedicated part of Wednesday’s general audience to “trusting in the God of life,” and promoting humanity “in all its expressions,” above all in the “wonderful adventure of motherhood and fatherhood.”

“In your families, may you never lack the courage to make decisions about motherhood and fatherhood. Do not be afraid to welcome and defend every child conceived. Proclaim and serve the Gospel of life. God is the lover of life. Therefore, always protect it with care and love,” he said in his greetings to the Polish-speaking pilgrims present in St. Peter's Square.

Pope Leo XIV acknowledged, however, that this vocation is developing today in a challenging context “in which families struggle to bear the burden of daily life.”

Thus, he lamented that many families “are often held back in their plans and dreams” by these pressures, which can discourage couples from starting a family or expanding the one they already have.

For the pontiff, family life also means committing to “an economy based on solidarity, striving for a common good equally enjoyed by all, respecting and caring for creation, offering comfort through listening, presence, and concrete and selfless help.”

The Holy Father continued with his catechesis on “the Pasch of Christ,” which “ illuminates the mystery of life and allows us to look at it with hope,” although he acknowledged that this “is not always easy or obvious.”

“Many lives, in every part of the world, appear laborious, painful, filled with problems and obstacles to be overcome,” he observed. However, he affirmed that human beings receive life as “a gift.” 

The pope then pointed to  “the questions of all ages” that have marked the history of human thought: “Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What is the ultimate meaning of this journey?”

For the pontiff, “living” evokes “a hope” that acts as a “deep-seated drive” that “keeps us walking in difficulty, that prevents us from giving up in the fatigue of the journey, that makes us certain that the pilgrimage of existence will lead us home.”

Society’s ‘sickness’: a lack of confidence in life

During his reflections, the pope noted there is “a widespread sickness in the world”: a lack of confidence in life.

This lack of confidence, he explained, takes the form of silent resignation, as if life were no longer perceived as a gift received, but as an unknown or even a “threat” against which it is advisable to protect oneself “so as not to end up disappointed.”

In this context, the pope affirmed that the "value of living and of generating life" becomes an "urgent call" today, especially because — he noted, quoting the Book of Wisdom — God is the quintessential "lover of life" (Wisdom 11:26).

The pope emphasized that "God’s logic" remains “faithful to his plan of love and life; he does not tire of supporting humanity even when, following in Cain’s footsteps, it obeys the blind instinct of violence in war, discrimination, racism, and the many forms of slavery.”

The pope pointed to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as “the strength that supports us in this challenge even when the darkness of evil obscures the heart and the mind.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.