Pope Leo XIV has made his first visit to a mosque since his election – and although he removed his shoes as a sign of respect – he did not appear to pray.
On Saturday, Leo visited the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, a 17th-century place of worship considered an architectural masterpiece of the Ottoman era, adorned with blue ceramic tiles covering its walls and dome. It is also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
Leo, accompanied by local Muslim leaders, walked through the mosque’s courtyard and, after removing his shoes, entered the mosque wearing white socks. The first American pope, an avid Chicago White Sox baseball fan, has recently joked that he “always wears white socks,” CNN reports, as translated by Gazeta Express.
Aşgın Tunca, a muezzin, said that Leo had been invited to pray during the visit. The muezzin – the official who calls Muslims to prayer – was among those who accompanied Leo inside the Blue Mosque.
“I offered him the opportunity to pray here if he wished, but he said: ‘No, I’ll just look around,’” Tunca later explained, adding that he had been told the pope would “pray here.”
Confusion grew when the Vatican press office released a statement after the visit saying that Leo had prayed in the mosque and had been received by the head of Turkey’s state religious authority – even though neither of these things had occurred. The Vatican later said the statement, which mentioned Leo spending “a brief moment in prayer,” had been sent by mistake and was taken from a pre-prepared trip brochure.
Leo is the third pope to visit the Blue Mosque. Previous papal visits have raised questions about whether the pope would pray or not.
In 2014, Pope Francis spent two minutes praying silently while inside the mosque, and in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI observed what the Vatican described as a moment of “silent meditation,” which some viewed as the first time a pope had prayed in a Muslim place of worship.
