Pope visits famous Blue Mosque ahead of meeting Turkey’s religious leaders

Pope Leo toured the Blue Mosque in Istanbul (Domenico Stinellis/AP)

Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque at the start of an intense day of meetings and liturgies with Turkey’s religious leaders and a Mass for the country’s tiny Catholic community.

The head of Turkey’s Diyanet religious affairs directorate showed Leo the soaring tiled dome of the mosque and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns, as Leo nodded in understanding.