ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Saturday but didn’t stop to pray, as he opened 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 domes of the 17th-century mosque and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns, as Leo nodded in understanding.

The Vatican had said Leo would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer” there, but it didn’t appear that he had. The imam of the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said he had invited Leo to pray, since the mosque was “Allah’s house,” but the pope declined.

Speaking to reporters after the visit, Tunca said he had told the pope: “It’s not my house, not your house, (i

See Full Page