Turkey’s Christians eager to ‘feel seen’ during Pope Leo’s visit

For Father Andrew Hochstedler, Pope Leo’s visit to Turkey recalls his favourite childhood novels, the Chronicles of Narnia. For him, it is as if Aslan the lion is coming.

“Aslan in the book is a symbol for a Christ figure,” the parish priest at the St Anthony of Padua church told The National. “The Pope is the servant of all servants, he is the leader of the church. He's representing Christ on Earth. So there is that connection.”

Outside, the Holy See’s flag has been hoisted up the side of the 113-year-old church building, on the bustling Istiklal Avenue shopping street in central Istanbul. Inside, cards bearing Pope Leo’s face have been prepared with a prayer in Turkish for his visit.

This week, the leader of the world’s Catholics will head to Turkey and Lebanon, in his first overseas trip since his appointment in May following the death of Pope Francis. In Turkey, he will visit Istanbul's renowned Blue Mosque and make a stop in the city of Iznik, where in the year 325 a council of bishops created a basis of beliefs still used in Christian worship today. In Lebanon, in the shadow of renewed Israeli air strikes, Pope Leo will visit churches and hold a prayer at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Preparations for Pope Leo's visit at the St Anthony of Padua church in Istanbul. Lizzie Porter / The National

There is a palpable excitement among Turkey’s Catholic and wider Christian community about Pope Leo’s long-awaited visit to the country, whose territory is dotted with sites from the religion's history. There are no concrete figures for Turkey's Christian population, though the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom estimates that under one per cent of the country's 86 million