Rome Newsroom, Nov 27, 2025 / 09:25 am

Aboard the papal plane on Thanksgiving Day, Pope Leo XIV kicked off his first international trip — a visit to Turkey — with distinctly American gifts: a baseball bat and pumpkin pie.

“To the Americans here, Happy Thanksgiving!” Leo said as he greeted about 80 journalists aboard the chartered ITA Airways flight to Ankara on Thursday morning. “It’s a wonderful day to celebrate.”

Two American journalists traveling with the pope gave him pumpkin pies. “It’s not Thanksgiving if there’s not enough to share,” Crux correspondent Elise Ann Allen told the pope as she handed him the second pie.

“I’ll definitely share some,” Leo responded. The pope had plenty to share as NBC News correspondent Claudio Lavanga also gave him a pecan pie.

Leo, a longtime Chicag

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