Pope Leo removes shoes but does not appear to pray in first mosque visit

By Christopher Lamb, CNN

Istanbul (CNN) — Pope Leo XIV has made his first visit to a mosque since his election, and while he removed his shoes as a sign of respect, he did not appear to pray.

On Saturday, Leo went to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, a 17th-century place of worship considered an Ottoman-era architectural masterpiece, with turquoise ceramic tiles adorning its walls and dome.

Leo, accompanied by local Muslim leaders, walked through the mosque’s courtyard and, after taking off his shoes, was shown around the interior in his white socks. The first American pope, who is a keen Chicago White Sox baseball fan, recently joked that he always wears “white socks.”

Aşgın Tunca, a Muezzin, said Leo had been invited to pray during his visit. A Muezzin is an official who calls Muslims to prayer and who had been among those showing Leo around the Blue Mosque.

“I offered [to] him, if he would like to worship here, but he said ‘no, I am just going to look around,” Tunca said afterwards, explaining that “they told me” the pope was going to “pray here”.

There was further confusion when the Vatican press office sent out a statement after the visit saying Leo had prayed at the mosque and that he had been welcomed by the head of Turkey’s state-run religious body, despite neither event occurring. The Vatican later said the statement, which referred to Leo observing “a brief moment of prayer,” had been sent in error and taken from the booklet produced before the trip.

Leo is the third pope to visit the Blue Mosque. Past papal visits have raised questions as to whether the pope would pray.

In 2014, Pope Francis spent two minutes in silent prayer while at the mosque, and in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI observed what the Vatican described as a moment of “silent meditation,” and which some saw as the first time a pope had prayed in a Muslim place of worship.

Following Leo’s visit, the Vatican said the pope “visited the Mosque in silence, in a spirit of reflection and listening, with profound respect for the place and the faith of those gathered here in prayer.”

The first pope to visit a mosque was John Paul II, who visited one in Syria in 2001. The last sixty years has seen the Catholic Church engage in an active dialogue with the Muslim world.

Pope Leo recently marked the 60th anniversary of a landmark church declaration on inter-religious cooperation, which hundreds of religious leaders attended at the Vatican.

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