Pope Leo XIV visits Turkey and Lebanon on his first foreign trip , a visit that fulfills the late Pope Francis’ plans to mark an important Orthodox anniversary and bring a message of peace to the region at a crucial time for efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions.

In Ankara, Leo will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then travel to Istanbul for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings that will be followed by the Lebanese leg of his Nov. 27-Dec. 2 trip.

Leo’s main reason for traveling to Turkey is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council. In 325 AD, that council hashed out the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday.

For

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