Sawt Falasteen - In Istanbul, pope meets bereaved family, prays with Armenians

On the last day of his visit, his first trip overseas since being elected leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, Leo participated in several Sunday services in another demonstration of his desire for greater unity among different branches of the Church.

At the Armenian Cathedral, Leo said had words of encouragement for the largest of Turkey's Christian communities that counts some 50,000 members, thanking God "for the courageous Christian witness of the Armenian people throughout history, often amid tragic circumstances".

It was an apparent nod to the massacres the Armenians suffered at the hands of the Ottoman troops in 1915-1916 which has been qualified as genocide by around 30 countries, although Turkey firmly rejects the term.

"The Armenian people do not forget the popes who raised their voice in our times of suffering, who stood with Christian communities in danger and who upheld truth when the world hesitated," Armenian Patriarch Sahak Mashalian said.

And he prayed Leo's influence would help ensure the safety of "vulnerable Christian communities" in the Middle East, saying: "May the good Lord make you an angel of peace in those bleeding lands to herald glad tidings of enduring peace among war-worn peoples."

The American pope then went to take part in a divine liturgy -- the Orthodox equivalent of mass -- at the Patriarchal Church of St. George, its glittering interior echoing with chants and ancient liturgy, the air filled with incense.

But before all his public duties, Leo met privately with a bereaved father whose 14-year-old Italian-Turkish son died in February after being stabbed at a market in Istanbul.

- 'My greatest dream' -

"Today I cried, but I cried tears of joy, I came for Mattia Ahmet," Italian chef Andrea Minguzzi said of his son in remarks to reporters afterwards, thanking the pope for meeting him and "fulfilling one of the greatest dreams of my life".

"I wrote a letter two weeks ago and he received us today. I asked him for his support for our mission of peace and brotherhood. He is praying. This may be the best thing for us," he said, fighting back tears.

Leo was to have lunch with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, a day after they signed a joint declaration pledging to take "new and courageous steps on the path towards unity".

Despite doctrinal differences that led to the Great Schism of 1054 which divided Christians between the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the two sides maintain dialogue and hold joint celebrations.

Pope Leo -- the fifth pontiff to visit Turkey after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014 -- began his trip by holding talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Then he travelled to Iznik for an ecumenical celebration marking 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea, one of the early Church's most important gatherings.

In Istanbul on Saturday, thousands of worshippers braved heavy rain to celebrate mass with him, with many travelling across Turkey to join the multilingual service that left participants and observers deeply moved by its beautiful and haunting choral interludes.

He was expected to leave Istanbul at 1145 GMT and fly to Beirut for a visit lasting until Tuesday.

The six-day two-nation trip is the first major international test for the first pope from the United States, who was elected head of the Catholic Church in May and whose understated style contrasts with that of his charismatic and impulsive predecessor, Francis.

Although Leo's visit drew little attention in Turkey, a Muslim-majority nation of 86 million whose Christian community numbers only around 100,000, it is eagerly awaited in Lebanon, a religiously diverse country of 5.8 million inhabitants.

Since 2019, Lebanon has been ravaged by crises, including an economic collapse, a devastating port blast in Beirut in 2020 and the recent war with Israel.

O.Mousa--SF-PST