The Catholic leader, who visited the mosque on Saturday, was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim majority.
The head of Turkey’s Diyanet religious affairs directorate showed Leo the soaring tiled dome of the mosque and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns, as Leo nodded in understanding.
Like all visitors, the pope removed his shoes to enter the mosque, walking onto the burnt orange carpet in white socks — not a mandatory part of the papal uniform but, in this case, a likely nod to Leo’s favourite baseball team, the Chicago White Sox.
Pope Leo XIV visits Turkey
He spent about 15 minutes inside, with Muslim dignitaries showing him around, as overhead a stray crow circled under the vast domes, cawing as it sought a way out, according to an AFP correspondent with the delegation.
“He wanted to see the mosque, he wanted to feel the atmosphere of the mosque and he was very pleased,” Askin Tunca, the Blue Mosque’s muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters.
Pope Leo became the first American Pope after being elected in May as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
The Blue Mosque is one of Istanbul’s main tourist attractions, with six minarets and a roof of cascading domes, its interior lined with vibrant blue Iznik tiles.