Pope Leo XIV is on his first foreign trip to Turkey and later Lebanon, marking an important Christian anniversary and bringing a message of peace to the region at a crucial time for efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions.

Leo met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara and highlighted Turkey’s role as a bridge between East and West. He arrived in Istanbul later Thursday for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings that will be followed by the Lebanese leg of his trip until Tuesday.

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 A.D. 325, that council hashed out the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still r

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