Pope Leo XIV completes pilgrimage to Turkey, meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and religious leaders while promoting peace and unity before traveling to Lebanon.

Pope Leo XIV wrapped up his visit to Turkey on Sunday before heading to Lebanon, where he aimed to bring a message of hope to its long-suffering people and bolster a crucial Christian community in the Middle East. He preached similar messages of peace and unity, within his own Catholic community and more broadly, during his earlier stops in Turkey.

Pope Leo XIV headed to Lebanon on Sunday with a message of peace for the crisis-hit nation after wrapping up a four-day trip to Turkey's tiny Christian community that focused on unity within the Church.

Pope Leo XIV is on his first foreign trip to Turkey and later Lebanon, marking an important Christian anniversary and bringing a message of peace to the region at a crucial time for efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions.

A maritime demarcation deal signed between Lebanon and Cyprus violates the rights of Turkish Cypriots on the island and is therefore unacceptable, Turkey said on Thursday.

Pope Leo XIV ended his visit to Turkey on Sunday and flew to Lebanon, arriving at a moment of profound uncertainty to deliver a message of hope to a nation beleaguered by years of crisis and to shore up one of the Middle East’s most fragile Christian communities.

Pope Leo XIV started the second day of his tour of Turkey and Lebanon meeting bishops and other church officials at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, a 19th-century Baroque church in Istanbul’s Sisli district.

The eyes of the world are fixed with anticipation on Pope Leo XIV's journey to Turkey and Lebanon. What tone will Leo strike?