What Pope Leo's visit to Turkey and Lebanon means for the Middle East

For a country whose history is so intertwined with that of Christianity in the Middle East, it seems remarkable that it took 44 years from Lebanon’s foundation for a Catholic pontiff to set foot there. Although Pope Paul VI’s visit in 1964 consisted of an hour-long layover at Beirut airport, he used his brief address there to highlight how Lebanon “holds with honour its place in the concert of nations”.

Since that first flying visit, Lebanon has hosted more Catholic leaders. Pope John Paul II made a full apostolic visit in May 1997 followed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, a time when civil war was raging in neighbouring Syria. On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV will arrive in Beirut for two days of religious and diplomatic engagements. It is notable that the US-born pontiff’s first foreign trips since becoming head of the Church in May are to Muslim-majority Turkey and the Levant.

Pope Leo's coming visit to Iznik puts small Turkish town on map 03:07

In doing so, Pope Leo is continuing the outreach to the Muslim and Arab world undertaken by his predecessor, Pope Francis. Many will remember the Argentinian pontiff’s ground-breaking, three-day visit to the UAE in February 2019. There he celebrated the first-ever papal Mass in the Arabian Peninsula and signed the Document on Human Fraternity with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Dr Ahmed El Tayeb.