The first apostolic journey of Pope Leo XIV touches Türkiye and Lebanon, lands where Christian history encounters ancient wounds and modern challenges
There is a place in Türkiye where, seventeen hundred years ago, it was decided what it means to be Christian. Is called Nicaea – today Iznik – and is the city where in 325 the bishops from all over the then known world gathered to write the Creed. Those words that even today, every Sunday, millions of faithful pronounce in churches on every continent.
Leo XIV left here for his first apostolic journey. It’s not a random choice. Returning to Nicaea means returning to the essence, to what unites all Christians before the divisions. It is a powerful symbolic gesture, a hand extended towards the Orthodox, even though they are deeply divided among themselves, with the Patriarchate of Constantinople and that of Moscow That they face each otherunfortunately, in a silent war that has its epicenter in Ukraine.
A divided world
The theological dispute over “Filioque”the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, is over a thousand years old, and is opposed to the orthodox doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds solely from the Father (monopatrism). But what really split Christianity was the question of the primacy of the Pope. Without that unifying authority, the Eastern Churches splintered into national churches, often subservient to political power. It is enough to look today at the Russian Orthodox Church, so closely linked to Putin’s government, to understand the consequences of that ancient rupture.
In Türkiye the Pope will also see something else: the end of a world. Constantinople it was the shining capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for more than a thousand years. A Christian metropolis that dominated from the Balkans to Egypt, from Syria to the Caucasus. Then came the Arabs, finally the Turks. And in the, 1453 Constantinople fell into a bloodbath.
A historical excursus
The Cardinal Bessarione raised the alarm: these “ferocious barbarians” threaten Italy, the whole of Europe. And in fact the Ottomans tried, several times, to conquer the continent. They were stopped only in 1683 under the walls of Viennawhen a European coalition finally repelled the invasion.
The Ottoman Empire survived until the First World War. And precisely in those years the horror happened: around two million Armenians massacred in what Pope Francisin 2015, called it “the first genocide of the 20th century.” Words that caused a diplomatic clash with Turkey, which still denies that definition today.
Todayin this land of ancient Christianity, Catholics are reduced to very few units. Erdogan has imprinted a strong Islamization on the country, symbolized by the transformation of Hagia Sophia, a splendid Constantinian cathedral, into a mosque. Living as Christians here has become difficult.
The stop in Lebanon
The second stop of the papal journey is Lebanon, another precious fragment of Eastern Christianity. Born between 1943 and 1945, it was the only country in the Middle East with a Christian majority. They called it “Switzerland of the Middle East” for its prosperity and openness to the West.
Then, around 1967, thePalestine Liberation Organization moved his base there. Lebanon became a battlefield. In 1975 one broke out civil war which lasted fifteen years, devastating the economy and causing a mass exodus, especially of Christians. Today the Muslim population is the majorityand Christians struggle every day for survival.
Christianity that resists
Yet, Christianity resists. In a nation as large as Abruzzo with the inhabitants of Veneto, Catholics are less than two million. But they manage over a thousand parishes, seven hundred schools, twenty-three hospitals, dozens of centers for the elderly, orphanages and clinics. A capillary network that holds together a fragile social fabric, which prevents civil war by offering education, care, hope.
This Catholic presence arouses admiration even among non-Christians. And it shows that a strong Christian identity can be beneficial for everyone, not just believers. It is an example for the Middle East and not only that.
Leo XIV goes to Lebanon for this: for support a Christianity that courageously resistswho doesn’t give up, who builds bridges instead of walls. A journey that looks to the past to understand the present, and looks to the present to build the future.
