Pope Leo XIV wraps up a four-day trip to Turkey on Sunday after a warm welcome by its tiny Christian community, before heading to Lebanon with a message of peace for the crisis-mired nation. The six-day two-nation trip is the first major international test for the first pope from the United States,

Women now hold roles that shape the Church’s global mission —from selecting bishops to overseeing humanitarian initiatives.

Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul's iconic Blue Mosque on Saturday but didn't stop to pray, as he opened an intense day of meetings and liturgies with Turkey's Christian leaders, where he again emphasized the need for Christians to be united.

Leo undertook the tour "in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and for the faith of those who gather there in prayer," the Vatican said.

The Chicago-born pope broke with his two predecessors by rejecting the invitation to pray at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul during his first foreign trip.

On his last day in Turkey, Pope Leo XIV urged Christian leaders to work together to promote unity, care for creation, and promote a responsible use of new technologies amid their rapid development.

Leo's final event for the day was a Catholic Mass in Istanbul's Volkswagen Arena for the country's Catholic community, who make up 33,000 in a country of more than 85 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.

A priest traveled thousands of miles from his North Texas parish with a special request of Pope Leo XIV amid his first foreign trip as pontiff.