Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque early on Saturday, on the third day of his trip to Turkey. It was the first time the American pope, elected in May as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, visited a Muslim place of worship since taking over from his late predecessor, Francis. The Blue Mosque is one of Istanbul’s main tourist attractions, with six minarets and a roof of cascading domes, its interior lined with vibrant blue Iznik tiles.

With such a highly symbolic gesture, Leo follows in the footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the site in 2006, and Francis, who did the same in 2014. Like all visitors, the pope removed his shoes to enter the mosque, walking onto the burnt orange carpet in white socks — not a mandatory part of the papal uniform but in this case a likely nod to Leo’s favourite baseball team, the Chicago White Sox.

He spent about 15 minutes inside, with Muslim dignitaries showing him around, as overhead a stray crow circled under the vast domes, cawing as it sought a way out, according to an AFP correspondent with the delegation. “He wanted to see the mosque, he wanted to feel the atmosphere of the mosque, and he was very pleased,” Askin Tunca, the Blue Mosque’s muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters.

Outside, several dozen onlookers gathered behind high barriers, most of them foreign tourists. “The pope’s travels are always very beautiful thing because he brings peace with him,” smiled Roberta Ribola, a 50-year-old tourist from northern Italy who was waiting outside. “It’s good that people from different cultures meet, especially as foreigners are riddled with Islamophobia,” said Sedat Kezer, 33, a street food vendor hawking grilled corn-on-the-cob.

“But the pope would seem more sincere if he mingled with the public. No one can see or interact with him,” he said, gesturing to the huge security deployment outside the mosque.

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