While expectations have been focused on November almost since the first day of Pope Leo's pontificate, the Holy See has now officially announced that the Pontiff's first apostolic visit will indeed be to Turkey and Lebanon, in the context of this year's 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
The Pope will travel to Türkiye from November 27 to 30, and to Lebanon from November 30 to December 2. The first leg of the journey, the Vatican announced, will "include a pilgrimage to İznik on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea."
Background
In undertaking this journey, Pope Leo is continuing with a plan already made by Pope Francis and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew.
Leo assured almost immediately after his May 8 election that he was intending to keep Francis' plan alive.
What was the Council of Nicaea?
It happened in the year 325: The exact dates of the council are uncertain, but we know it opened in the late spring and ended in the summer, in July or August, of the year 325, in what is the city of Iznik, in modern-day Turkey.
May 20 is celebrated as the anniversary of the opening and July 25 as the closing.
Emperor Constantine was the one who called the Council.
Pope Sylvester I (pope from 314 to 335) was represented by delegates. Tradition holds that 318 bishops were there (find out why that number here), so that it is considered by Christian churches to be the first ecumenical council -- called "ecumenical" precisely because it brought together the oikoumene (in Greek), that is, the whole inhabited earth. That is to say, it represents a time in early Church history before the great divide -- the Great Schism -- between East and West, between Catholics and Orthodox.
What it means for unity
Pope Francis had planned to go to Turkey to celebrate the anniversary with Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew. A date for the trip was never announced, but it was expected to have taken place in May of 2025. However, with Francis' passing in April, those dates had to be postponed.
Shortly thereafter, however, Patriarch Bartholomew indicated it could happen on the November 30 feast of St. Andrew.
Andrew, brother of Peter, evangelized to the east and he is recognized as the founder of the See of Byzantium-Constantinople. Bartholomew is thus considered his successor. To bring Leo and Bartholomew together is to unite the successors of the two Apostle Brothers, the first pope and the first patriarch.
Find a lot more about Nicaea information and commentary here.
Lebanon
Meanwhile a trip to Lebanon is a commentary on the situation in the whole Middle East. The country has been called by recent popes a "message."
John Paul said in 1989: “Lebanon is more than a country: It is a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for the East as well as for the West."
Pope Francis repeated the idea in 2020: "It is a small yet great country, but even more, it is a universal message of peace and fraternity arising from the Middle East."
In a 2017 interview, the president of Lebanon at the time, Michel Aoun, told Aleteia:
“Lebanon is the meeting place of different cultures and civilizations, and its social fabric includes all the confessions of Islam and Christianity that live in harmony, respecting freedom of belief and political balance, and this is proof that it has been a sophisticated model throughout the Muslim conquest up until today.”
There are set quotas in Parliament for Christians and Muslims. Hezbollah is a political party and has 13 seats in Lebanon’s Parliament.
Lebanon's fragile political situation today, with the conflict of Hezbollah and Israel and the greater region, stands to be strengthened with a visit from Pope Leo.
