This Saturday, Leo However, unlike what his two predecessors, Benedict XVI and Francis, did when they traveled to the country and visited the same place in 2006 and 2014 respectively, the Pope has not had a moment of prayer, which was initially planned.
These visits are always delicate in the complex relations between the Catholic Church and Islam, and the details are carefully measured. In the past, there have even been debates about what exactly to call what the Pope does or does not do in a mosque, whether it is a prayer or a moment of recollection, to avoid theological controversies. Both on the part of Catholicism and Muslims.
In recent decades, it has been considered a clear step towards rapprochement between both religions that the Pope and a Muslim leader pray together or that the Pontiff does so in a mosque, as happened with Benedict XVI and Francis in their respective visits to the Blue Mosque, also called Sultan Ahmed. That gesture was especially important for him, since that trip occurred two months after the controversy of his Regensburg speech, where Joseph Ratzinger spoke about the use of violence in Islam, and with phrases taken out of context a wave of protests was unleashed in the Muslim world. In fact, there were demonstrations in Istanbul against Benedict XVI.
That is why it was somewhat surprising that Leo XIV did not follow this custom of sharing a moment of prayer in the Blue Mosque, which seemed already consolidated. It is not known if it was deliberate or if it was simply decided on the fly depending on how the visit went. The fact is that Leo XIV got carried away in the middle of the procession and, after about 15 minutes of visiting, he left the great Muslim temple of Sultan Ahmed without having prayed.
Now it will be necessary to see if this gesture remains an anecdote or has an intention and more implications, since it can be interpreted that this pope considers that each religion has to be in its place and these situations are not appropriate. If so, it would mean a change of course compared to the last pontiffs. It will certainly be one of the questions that will be asked to Leo XIV at the press conference for the return flight next Tuesday, if it finally takes place, since it is his first trip and it is not yet known what he will decide on the matter.
The official Vatican program clearly indicated that Robert Prevost would have a “silent moment of prayer” at the mosque, and the temple’s muezzin, Asgin Tunca, when asked by journalists, explained that he invited him to do so when he arrived. However, later the event developed practically like a tourist visit, in which Tunca explained the history and architecture of the building.
“They explained to me that the Pope was going to pray here, and I said there was no problem,” Tunca later commented to journalists, who asked him, intrigued by the question. “I told him: ‘This is the house of God, if you want you can pray’, and he told me: ‘That’s fine, let’s continue the visit,’” he said.
The Holy See, shortly afterwards, simply noted that the Pope “visited the mosque in silence, in a spirit of recollection and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of all who gather there in prayer.”
Turkey has historically been a key crossroads in the Vatican’s dialogue with other religions, both with Islam and the Orthodox, since the Patriarch of Constantinople is the highest authority of that confession. The first pope to travel, Paul VI, visited Türkiye in 1967, followed by John Paul II in 1979.
The Polish pope was the first pontiff to take off his shoes and enter a mosque, the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, in 2001. There he prayed before the tomb where, according to tradition, the head of Saint John the Baptist is. Then, before the Grand Mufti, he asked for forgiveness “for all the times that Muslims and Christians offended each other.”
In 2006, Benedict XVI’s visit to the Blue Mosque was not initially on the program, and was included at the last minute. Later, Ratzinger referred to that moment as follows: “Pausing for a few minutes in recollection in that place of prayer, I addressed the one Lord of heaven and earth, merciful Father of all humanity.”
Francisco, for his part, when he visited the mosque he did so with the city’s mufti. At a certain moment, they stopped and the pope bowed his head, closed his eyes and joined his hands. He later explained it this way on the flight back from his visit to Turkey in 2014: “At that moment I felt the need to pray. I said, ‘Shall we pray a little?’. ‘Yes, yes,’ he said. And I prayed for Turkey, for peace, for the mufti, for everyone, for me, who needs him. I really prayed. And I prayed above all for peace,” he told reporters.
