Pope Leo XIV was impressed by the world-famous Blue Mosque when he made his first visit as pontiff to a Muslim place of worship on Saturday, the site’s muezzin has told The National.
“I think he was impressed by the mosque, because I think he left with a sense of peace,” Asgin Musa Tunca said, after giving the leader of the world’s Catholics a tour of the Sultan Ahmed mosque, its official name, in Istanbul.
Mr Tunca, who makes the call to prayer from the 17th century Ottoman mosque, accompanied the Pope inside, alongside other dignitaries, including the Mufti of Istanbul, Emrullah Tuncel, and Turkey's Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
The team showed the Pope around the mosque, including the pulpit and the mihrab, a prayer niche in the wall that indicates the direction to Makkah.
“We explained the mihrab. We explained what we do. Then he asked some questions,” Mr Tunca said in an interview from the mosque’s courtyard. “I think he was especially impressed when the mihrab was explained to him.”
“He's cheerful,” Mr Tunca added. “I think he's a good person.”
The visit was the American Pope’s first to a Muslim place of worship since his election as Catholic leader in May, and is widely seen as a gesture of unity between Christianity and Islam. Removing his shoes in a sign of respect, he walked around the mosque in white socks, spending about 25 minutes at the site. He then travelled to a meeting with Christian leaders at a new church opened in Istanbul in 2023.
Pope Leo, 70, visited the mosque, “in a spirit of recollection and attentive listening, with deep respect for the place and for the faith of those who gather there in prayer”, the Holy See Press Office said.
Commissioned by Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I, the mosque gained its nickname as the Blue Mosque from the thousands of ceramic tiles that shimmer on its walls. It is the only Muslim place of worship in Istanbul to have six minarets.
Pope Leo is on his third day of a four-day tour of Turkey, after which he will travel to Lebanon.
In speeches since arriving in the Muslim-majority nation of 86 million people, he has called for diversity to be embraced and condemned the use of religion to justify conflict, without naming specific wars.
There was a heavy security presence around the mosque for his visit. Neighbouring Sultan Ahmed Square, normally bustling with tourists, was shut off with barricades and surrounded by police.
There were no huge crowds waiting to see the Pope early on Saturday morning, but some tourists came out in the hope of glimpsing him.
Guillermo Zanuttini, a tourist from Argentina, realised that his visit to Istanbul would coincide with Pope Leo’s trip and came out to try to spot him.
“I'm Catholic, but I don't practise it so much, yet I don't know why, when I see the Pope, I think it's so important for the whole world, not only for the religion, but for relationships between different countries and cultures,” he told The National. “I didn’t think I would be smiling so much,” he added.
Turks, of whom only a tiny minority are Christian, have mostly gone about their usual business during the Pope’s visit, amid strict road closures to allow the pontiff to move around. Some have opposed his visit, accusing the Vatican of attempting to proselytise and make claims to Turkish territory.
Yet many others endorse the Pope’s message of unity between peoples and faiths.
At a kiosk beside the Blue Mosque, closed to tourists and worshippers during the Pope’s visit, bagel seller Ahmet Gurgenci, 73, said there were no reasons for disputes between normal people.
“People have no problems with each other,” he said, as the smell of warm bread wafted from his stand. “The people of the world are brothers and sisters.”
Pope Leo's Saturday itinerary includes a meeting with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew I. On Friday, the two leaders prayed alongside each other at a site in the Turkish town of Iznik, where 1,700 years ago, bishops formulated a proclamation of faith still used by most of the world’s Christians.
The programme also includes the pontiff leading the first public mass in Turkey overseen by a Pope, at a stadium with a capacity of thousands of people in Istanbul.
