Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s iconic Blue Mosque on Saturday but didn't stop to pray, as he focused more on bolstering ties with Orthodox patriarchs and promoting courageous steps for Eastern and Western churches to be united.

Leo took his shoes off and, in his white socks, toured the 17th-century mosque, looking up at its soaring tiled domes and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns as an imam pointed them out to him.

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The Vatican had said Leo would observe a “brief moment of silent prayer” in the mosque, but he didn't. An imam of the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said he had invited Leo to pray, since the mosque was “Allah's house,” but the pope declined.

Later, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: “The pope experience

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