Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Saturday, November 29, 2025
From the Liveblog of
Saturday, November 29, 2025
Pope Leo visits Blue Mosque on second day of Turkey trip
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Pope Leo XIV visits the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque), in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 29, 2025. (Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
Pope Leo XIV starts the second day of his trip to Turkey with a visit to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque.
Leo follows in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim majority.
This is the pope’s first foreign trip. He will also visit Lebanon.
At the iconic mosque in Istanbul, the head of Turkey’s Diyanet religious affairs directorate shows him the structure’s soaring blue-tiled dome.
The Vatican says Leo would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer,” but it isn’t clear if he did.
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