Did he or didn’t he?
As Pope Leo XIV, on the first international trip of his papacy, visited the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul on Saturday, all eyes were on him to see if he would, like his last two predecessors, pray alongside Muslim clerics.
Leo, the first pontiff from the United States, did not appear to do so — at least not visibly.
Shortly after the pope departed, Asgin Musa Tunca, the mosque’s muezzin, who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters that he had invited the pope to pray inside the 17th-century place of worship, which is also known as the Blue Mosque.
Mr. Tunca said he had been told the pope would pray in the mosque but that Leo demurred. “‘That’s OK,’” the pope said, according to Mr. Tunca.
“He wanted to see the mosque,” Mr. Tunca said, adding he could not rule out that the pope had prayed silently.
Leo, who started his voyage in Turkey, heads to Lebanon next as he seeks to spread a message of peace and unity among Christians and of outreach to Muslims. His lack of visible prayer in the mosque did not immediately appear to undermine that message.
“We should meet,” said Mr. Tunca, who said he was “happy” that the pope had visited. “We should get to know each other,” he added.
In a statement, the Vatican said the pope had spent his time at the mosque “in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with profound respect for the place and for the faith of those gathered there in prayer.”
But about two hours later, in another statement that appeared to have been prewritten and released by accident, the Vatican said the pope would observe “a brief moment of prayer” at the mosque. The Vatican corrected that statement within half an hour.
Leo spent approximately 20 minutes in the mosque, which features grand domes and stained glass of brilliant blues, golds, reds and greens.
The pope’s hosts, including Mr. Tunca, Turkey’s culture and tourism minister, the provincial mufti of Istanbul and the mosque’s grand imam, explained the building’s features and history as the pontiff looked up at the ceiling and windows. Behind him, feral cats wandered across the bright ocher carpeting in the mosque, which had barred human visitors for the morning. Before the pope arrived, a stray crow had flown around the building, cawing defiantly.
During a visit to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in 2014, Pope Francis bowed his head and clasped his hands next to Istanbul’s senior cleric for a two-minute silent prayer as both faced the direction of Mecca.
Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Istanbul in 2006, wrapped his hands under his chest at the mosque to resemble the Islamic tradition of prayer.
While Pope Leo did not appear to follow suit, Father Claudio Monge, a priest and theologian in Istanbul who was part of the pope’s entourage at Sultan Ahmed on Saturday, noted that “a prayer in a mosque is an inner act.”
“Who can say if I am praying or not?” Father Monge said.
Josephine de La Bruyère contributed reporting from Rome.
Motoko Rich is the Times bureau chief in Rome, where she covers Italy, the Vatican and Greece.
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