Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to pray for him on Wednesday as he prepared to depart for his first international tour as the Archbishop of Rome, stopping in Turkey to mark the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and in Lebanon to meet with the Christian community there.

Both nations have robust Muslim populations today but played critical roles in the early development of the Church. Over 30 percent of Lebanon remains Christian, the majority of that population Catholic, and its constitution requires the president of the country to be a Maronite Christian. Turkey – after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, the imposition of secularism under founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the return of Islamism under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – is a less welcoming country to Christians, thou

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