Pope Leo  XIV departed Rome on Thursday morning, embarking on his first international trip as leader of the Catholic Church. His first destination is Turkey, where he is expected to call for peace in West Asia and advocate for unity among long-divided Christian denominations.

The newly elected pope selected Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, as the first stop on his overseas itinerary to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which established the Nicene Creed. The creed remains a foundational text for most Christian churches.

Leo, 70, has a packed three-day schedule in Turkey before traveling to Lebanon on Sunday. The trip is being closely watched as it will offer insight into his foreign policy priorities and diplomatic tone. "It’s a very important trip because we do not know much yet about Leo’s geopolitical views, and this is the first big chance for him to make them clear," said Massimo Faggioli, a Vatican scholar, in comments to Reuters.

Pope Leo  XIV, elected in May to succeed the late Pope Francis, was relatively unknown internationally before his election. He previously spent decades as a missionary in Peru and became a Vatican official in 2023. Francis had planned to visit Turkey and Lebanon, but deteriorating health prevented him from doing so.

The Pope departed from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport around 8 am local time, heading to Ankara, where he was scheduled to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other political leaders. Later in the day, he was to travel to Istanbul to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians.

The two church leaders are scheduled to visit the town of Iznik (historically Nicaea), southeast of Istanbul, on Friday. It was in Nicaea in 325 CE that early Christian bishops formulated the Nicene Creed, which remains a central expression of Christian faith.

Visit to Iznik marks 1,700 years since Nicene Creed

The choice to visit Iznik underlines Pope Leo's intention to bridge divisions between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, which formally split in the Great Schism of 1054. Recent decades have seen both sides work toward reconciliation.

In a notable shift from custom, Pope Leo  XIV is expected to deliver his speeches in English during his time in Turkey, departing from the usual practice of using Italian on foreign visits.

After he visits Turkey, Leo will carry a message of peace to Lebanon, the central theme of this leg of the journey. Lebanon holds the highest percentage of Christians in the Middle East and is a key site for interfaith coexistence.

His visit comes amid tensions in the region after "Israel" carried out an airstrike last Sunday that killed a top military official in the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah in a Southern Suburb of Beirut. The attack occurred despite a US-brokered truce that had been in place for over a year and had been violated by the occupation thousands of times.