On Sunday morning, it was confirmed that the Vatican’s chartered Airbus 320, which had transported Pope Leo XIV, his team, and 80 journalists to Turkey on Thanksgiving Day, was cleared for flight after a successful software update.
With that, our journey to Lebanon could proceed. Hallelujah!
Having covered nearly a dozen papal tours as a reporter and producer for Fox News, I can confidently say that Pope Leo’s first international trip ranks among the most memorable. Four days into this peace-focused pilgrimage to the Middle East, one might wonder if it’s just a lofty dream—or a “pie in the sky” endeavor.
During our flight from Rome, the atmosphere was quite festive. I sat beside a colleague who carried a tempting pecan pie, and nearby were two others who presented our Chicago-native pope with homemade pumpkin pies. Pope Leo was absolutely delighted! Although our Thanksgiving meal was modest, it was served with a touch of class, complete with a menu, real silverware, and cloth napkins.
Upon arrival at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut on November 30, 2025, Pope Leo XIV was greeted by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and his wife, Nehmat Nehmeh, marking the beginning of his first apostolic visit to the region.
Jumping to Saturday evening: After three intense days, Pope Leo led a Mass for 4,000 attendees in Istanbul, addressing the small Catholic community there. The history is stark; over a million Christians, predominantly Armenians, perished in World War I under the Ottoman Empire. Now, in a nation of 85 million, where most are Sunni Muslims, Catholics make up just 0.2% of the population.
At Mass, I sat next to my colleague Elise Harris, the first to be granted an interview with Pope Leo (he chose a woman, and an American, how cool is that!) and baker of one of those beautiful pumpkin pies. As Pope Leo walked down a side aisle near us in a cloud of incense, he gave us an almost imperceptible nod and blessed us with the sign of the cross. Amazing!
During the homily, the pope returned to the themes of peace and unity, the very same he emphasized on Thursday in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and again on Friday in Istanbul with Jewish religious leaders and later that day in Iznik, when he joined Orthodox patriarchs and ecumenical leaders to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
After that meeting and prayer with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, he signed a joint declaration in a show of Christian unity.
But the pope also spoke of the need for unity with non-Christians. “We live in a world where religion is too often used to justify wars and atrocities,” he said. “We need to appreciate what unites us, breaking down the walls of prejudices and mistrust… to become peacemakers.”
One man not invited to meet the pope in Iznik was Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish national who shot and severely wounded Pope John Paul II in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square in 1981. Agca was released from prison in 2010 after completing his sentences in Italy and Turkey and now lives in Iznik. He has never explained his motive for the assassination attempt, but Turkish media quoted him as saying he hoped to meet Leo “for two or three minutes.” Instead, he was escorted out of town.
Sometimes history repeats itself.
Back in 2006, I came to Istanbul for Fox News Radio to cover Pope Benedict XVI’s conciliatory visit aimed at quelling the violent uproar over comments he had made in a speech in Germany, in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor saying Islam was spread through “the sword.”
It was a big deal when Benedict was seen in the Blue Mosque, the country’s most important Muslim place of worship, with his head bowed and lips moving. I remember my Reuters colleague excitedly yelling out in the press room, “The pope is praying!” Well, yes, he might be doing that, I thought — but how to explain its importance in a 30-second audio clip?
In 2014, Pope Francis also visited the Blue Mosque and openly prayed. So it was natural to assume that our new pope would do the same. The Vatican press office even said in its daily communiqué he had.
But we ‘vaticanisti” were inside the Blue Mosque on Saturday morning, having left our shoes at the entrance and put on a headscarf, and saw there were clearly no pauses!
Later, the press spokesman Matteo Bruni clarified that the pope had visited the mosque “in silence, in the spirit of reflection and listening, with profound respect for the place and the faith of those gathered here in prayer.”
That description of a spirit of “reflection and listening with respect for others” does indeed capture the essence of this Midwestern 70-year-old.
His first words after being chosen to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics and thrust onto the world’s stage six months ago were, “Peace be with you.”
But it’s still too early to see how his message of unity and the brotherhood of man will resonate in the conflict-ridden Middle East.
