By Vatican News

The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, has announced that Pope Leo XIV will travel to Turkey and Lebanon in late November and early December of this year.

The visits will be the Pope’s first Apostolic Journeys abroad.

In a statement, Mr. Bruni said that the Pope had “accept[ed] the invitation of the Head of State and Ecclesiastical Authorities” in both Turkey and Lebanon.

The visit to Turkey would “include a pilgrimage to İznik on the occasion of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea,” Mr. Bruni said, adding that the itinerary of the Apostolic Journey to Lebanon “will be announced in due course.”

A ‘great sign of hope’

Speaking to Vatican News’ Olivier Bonnel, the Apostolic Vicar of Beirut, Bishop César Essayan, said that the Pope’s visit to Lebanon would be “a great sign of hope” in a war-torn region.

“We sincerely hope,” he added, “that his visit will bring a breath of peace and be a moment of renewal for us all, and that we will recognise that there is no path for humanity other than that of peace through dialogue, justice and respect for the dignity of every human being.”

Bishop Essayan stressed that both Lebanese Christians and Muslims were looking forward to the Pope’s visit. They wanted, he said, “To hear him speak words that we no longer hear from anyone except from a pastor, a father who desires that human beings come together as brothers and sisters, that there be another language than that of war for Lebanon”.

Bishop Essayan then highlighted what previous Popes had said about Lebanon: that the coexistence between Muslims and Christians in the country is a “message” for the world.

“I think”, he said, “that Pope Leo will come to the same conclusion: that we must rekindle this flame of communion and unity. It is not only the survival of Lebanon that is at stake, but that of the entire Middle East.”