The Papel Visit to Turkey

Dec 5

Trivia question: Who was the first pope to travel internationally? Of course, this would not include Peter since he did travel to Rome, nor the popes who were exiled from Rome, nor the three popes, Vigilius in 547, Agatho in 680, and Pope Constantine in 710, who traveled to Constantinople, nor Pope Stephen II, who in 752 crossed the Alps to re-anoint Pepin the Short as King of all the Franks, nor Pius VII who was supposed to crown Napoleon in 1804 until the later snatched the crown from his hands and put it on his own head. So, not counting all those popes, who was the first to travel internationally? The answer is… St. Pope Paul VI.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI was the first pope to travel by airplane, the first to leave Italy since 1809, and the first pope to have visited all the continents! Known as the “the Pilgrim Pope”, he set the pattern for his successors. St. Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis all traveled the globe as the Summus Pontifex Ecclesiae Universalis/Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.

These days we expect the Holy Father to travel so it might not have come as a surprise when we heard that Pope Leo XIV was in Turkey and Lebanon from November 27 – December 2. As a Head of State, he was welcomed by the President of Turkey, President Erdogan and addressed Turkish authorities and civic leaders on November 27th. Again, not surprising.

This trip, however, focusing on the promotion of dialogue and unity among Christians, was unique when Pope Leo met and prayed with different Catholic and Orthodox leaders in Iznik, the town that now includes the ancient city of Nicaea. It was in Nicaea, in the year 325 AD, that the Church held its First Ecumenical Council. Emperor Constantine called all the bishops of the church to gather and asked them to formulate a common understanding of the natures, divine and human, of Jesus Christ and how the two were held within the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

This trip, long envisioned and hoped for by Pope Francis, was to commemorate the 1700th Anniversary of the Nicaean Creed, the prayer we pray every Sunday… “We believe in God, the Father Almighty…”

Another significant event during this trip was when Pope Leo attended a Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. As the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, he is regarded as the first among equals in the Orthodox Church, and as a spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide.

This trip was not just to mark the 1700th Anniversary of the Nicaean Creed but was also intended to continue to chip away at the divide caused by the Great Schism of 1054 AD. That break between what we now call the Orthodox Christian Churches and the Roman Church has lead to centuries of battles and remains the antithesis of Jesus message.

St. Pope Paul VI, on January 6, 1964, again, creating history, was the first pope to formally meet with the ecumenical
patriarch since 1438. This meeting eventually led to the mutual lifting of the formal excommunications each church had imposed on each other. St. Pope John Paul II
recognizing the significance of the Eastern Churches and the mutuality of each when stating in his encyclical Ut Unim Sint/That They May Be One, “the Church must breathe with her two lungs!”

So, yes, the pope was traveling last week, but the
significance of this trip has long historical roots and,
hopefully, extended benefits as we all try to seek unity,
dialogue, and respect, especially among fellow Christians. Ut Unim Sint … That we all may be one. Jn 17:21

Peace and All Good.

NB: This pilgrimage also highlights the beautiful, rich, and at times painful, history of our church. Not many institutions can claim a 2000+ history. If you are interested in reading more about church history, Penguin Random House has a wonderful series, “The Penguin History of the Church.”

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