Sawt Falasteen - Pope, Orthodox leader to jointly celebrate early Church milestone

The American pope began his four-day visit on Thursday, flying into Ankara where he held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging him to embrace Turkey's role as mediator in a world gripped by conflict.

"Mr President, may Turkey be a source of stability and rapprochement between peoples, in service of a just and lasting peace," the pontiff told the Turkish leader as he kicked off the first overseas trip of his papacy.

Tight security meant the papal convoy swept through nearly empty streets in Ankara on a visit that has drawn little attention in this Muslim-majority nation of 86 million, whose Christian community numbers only around 100,000.

"This land is inextricably linked to the origins of Christianity, and today it beckons the children of Abraham and all humanity to a fraternity that recognises and appreciates differences," he said, before being flown to Istanbul where he will stay until Sunday when he travels to Lebanon.

On Friday, the 70-year-old pontiff will spend the morning with Catholic leaders before going to Iznik to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of bishops who drew up a foundational statement of faith still central to Christianity today.

Invited by the Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Leo will join an ecumenical prayer service overlooking the ruins of a 4th-century basilica built on the site where the First Council took place.

Despite doctrinal differences that led to the Great Schism of 1054, resulting in a split between the Roman Catholic church in the west and the Eastern Orthodox church in the east, they still maintain dialogue and hold joint celebrations.

They have recently made efforts to find a common date on which to celebrate Easter -- at present the Catholics follow the Gregorian calendar, while the Orthodox follow the Julian calendar.

- 'More credible when we're united' -

"When the world is troubled and divided by conflict and antagonism, our meeting with Pope Leo XIV is especially significant," Patriarch Bartholomew told AFP in an interview.

"It reminds our faithful that we are more powerful and more credible when we are united in our witness and response to the challenges of the contemporary world."

The pope's trip comes as the Orthodox world appears more fragmented than ever, with the war in Ukraine accelerating the split between the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates.

While Catholics recognise the pope as the head of the Church, the highly fragmented Orthodox are organised into self-governing church bodies that elect their own heads, although Bartholomew holds an honorary primacy in the Orthodox world.

The Eastern Church further fragmented over Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its war in Ukraine.

In 2018, the Moscow Patriarchate cut ties with Bartholomew after he recognised the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's independence from Russia, dealing a huge blow to Moscow's spiritual authority.

Although Patriarch Kirill, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church, has not been invited to Iznik, Leo must tread carefully to avoid irritating Moscow, which fears the Vatican could bolster Constantinople's primacy in the Orthodox world, further eroding Russia's influence.

Pope Leo is the fifth pontiff to visit Turkey, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.

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