Welcome and serve vulnerable refugees, Pope Leo says

Pope Leo XIV called for support for refugees and migrants in Turkey on Friday as he led his first overseas service as Pope in Istanbul’s Catholic cathedral.

“The significant presence of migrants and refugees in this country presents the church with the challenge of welcoming and serving some of the most vulnerable,” the pontiff told a congregation of Christian worshippers in the Latin Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

Pope Leo is on the second day of a four-day tour in Turkey, where he aims to build inter-Christian bonds and interfaith ties with the country’s Muslim majority. On Thursday, speaking next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara, he called for an embrace of religious and cultural diversity and rejected a race for military and economic superiority. The pontiff will travel to Lebanon on Sunday.

People await Pope Leo XIV's arrival at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul, Turkey. EPA

Turkey is home to millions of migrants, mostly from Muslim-majority countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, and churches in the country provide charitable services. Caritas, a Catholic aid organisation, provided victims of the 2023 earthquakes in south-eastern Turkey and Syria with shelter, food, water and other essentials.

Pope Leo arrived at the 19th century cathedral in a black hybrid vehicle, surrounded by security guards, and was greeted by the Catholic Bishop of Istanbul, Massimiliano Palinuro. A sign inside the church read “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism” – an apparent nod to the pontiff’s aim to strengthen historically strained ties between the eastern and western churches.

Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on the second day of his four-day visit to Turkey. EPA

Pope Leo is the fifth pontiff to pray at the cathedral, which all previous leaders of the Catholic