The first visit abroad by a new leader reveals quite a bit about their worldview, priorities and how they would like to be perceived by the international community and their own people. Even more so when they are a religious and spiritual leader for about 1.4 billion people across the globe, as is the case with Pope Leo XIV, whose papacy began in May and who chose the Middle East for his first overseas trip, sending a clear message of the importance he attaches to interfaith dialogue and peace. This message might be even more powerful coming from the first pontiff to originate in the US.
Pope Leo’s visit to Turkiye and Lebanon in late November and early this month was also a test of how he would handle some sensitive issues away from the protective environment of the Vatican. He very much took the political and social complexities of these two countries in his stride, coming across as genuine in his caring for the prosperity and security of his followers in the region, while equally searching for common ground with all religions.
His decision to visit countries where the majority are Muslim — albeit there is a stronger Christian minority in Lebanon than in Turkiye — demonstrates that he will not avoid difficult conversations, while keeping to the spirit of dialogue. Moreover, Pope Leo’s visit to Iznik, Turkiye, where the Nicene Creed was issued in 325 A.D. and which served as a point of departure for uniting the Christian world, was also symbolic of the need for present-day unity in his own backyard.
To engage in interfaith dialogue is not an avoidance of difficult questions but exactly the opposite — and you would expect religious-spiritual leaders to make a clear stand on issues of concern to their followers but in a manner that, unlike too many politicians, unites rather than divides.
Hence, when Pope Leo, during his visit to Turkiye, voiced the Vatican’s support for a two-state solution as “the only solution” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while also emphasizing the deep friendship shared by the Vatican and Israel, there is weight to it across many borders. This was even more pronounced when he encouraged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has prickly relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to play a role in seeking an end to the conflict. Similarly, the pope sent a message of the Catholic Church’s support for brokering a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the urgent need to end bloodshed wherever it occurs.
While it is risky for a religious leader, especially one of the pope’s stature, to express views that could be perceived as more political than spiritual, there is no project more spiritual than seeking to end wars and bloodshed. Visiting the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, presiding over his first Mass outside Italy at an arena in Istanbul and his silent prayer at the site of the Beirut port explosion were all powerful messages of what unites us as humans, not what divides us.
Since the Enlightenment, there has been misunderstanding and confusion, sometimes deliberately fostered, between religion and faith and between their place in personal versus collective life. The Enlightenment was mainly a European-based, secular reaction and opposition to the role of the church in state and society. While state-church relations have changed dramatically over the centuries — in many cases resulting in complete separation between the two — religion and faith remained important ingredients of societies and belief in a divinity stayed strong among many people, while manifesting itself in different ways.
One aim of those who preached for secularism was to abolish the religious wars that claimed the lives of many and sowed devastation as they did so. While in recent times the main strands of all monotheistic religions have been peaceful and have sought engagement through interfaith dialogue, there are also pockets of fundamentalism in all of them that seek confrontation rather than coexistence and reconciliation. There is also the phenomenon of liberal-progressive secularism with little to no tolerance for religion or people of faith, which is somewhat of an oxymoron.
More recently, we have seen an unacceptable increase in antisemitism and Islamophobia, much of it a misguided response to Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to be involved with interfaith dialogue and this has been one of the more rewarding experiences, even if challenging at the best of times. Those engaged in this kind of dialogue are, admittedly, a self-selected group with the curiosity to meet with people from other faiths.
Most of the time, this comes from a deep conviction that, as human beings, there is more that unites us than divides us — and the scriptures of all religions would probably confirm this. There are very few who immerse themselves in interfaith dialogue and then cut them short; precisely the opposite in fact: it whets their appetite for more and makes them ambassadors of goodwill and intercommunal dialogue for their friends, families, communities and even workplaces.
These conversations are not about convincing participants and others that one side is right and the other is wrong. And they are not about creating a single view of life and relations between individuals and communities that extends all the way up to relations between nations and states. Rather, they are about understanding and accepting differences, which are key to bringing people together on the path to peaceful coexistence, and eliminating the approach that sees the other as a source of threat to both their spiritual and physical existence.
There is no magic wand or a ready-made template for conducting interfaith dialogue that addresses the depth of our complex makeup as individuals and societies and how we relate to one another. It takes close attention and careful listening to reach the desired outcome. Still, by now there is enough evidence and experience for us to promote this kind of conversation, even as alarming events continue to take place.
For this, Pope Leo, in his visit to the Middle East, set out not only to support the Christian communities in the region, but also to deliver a sermon, so to speak, to people of all faiths across the globe, which was a timely message of peace and coexistence between communities.
BY: Writer Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect The Times Union‘ point of view
