ISTANBUL, Turkey (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV removed his shoes and entered Istanbul’s Blue Mosque for a moment of silent reflection on Saturday (Nov. 29), accompanied by the head of Turkey’s powerful department for religious affairs, the Diyanet, in what observers called a small but necessary step toward deepening dialogue between the Catholic Church and Islam.

The pope took the tour of the mosque “”in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and for the faith of those who gather there in prayer,” according to an official Vatican statement.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, large enough to accommodate 10,000 worshippers, is named for a 17^th century Ottoman ruler, but is widely referred to as the Blue Mosque for the more than 20,000 brightly colored Iznik tiles that adorn its walls.

Built in 1609, it is a monument to the Muslim sultans’ dominance in a city that has long been a center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The Hagia Sophia, built as a Byzantine church a millennium earlier, a short walk away, became a mosque under the Ottomans until the secularizing Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk settled religious disputes by turning it into a museum in 1934.

By not visiting Hagia Sophia, the most recognizable building in Istanbul, Leo avoided the diplomatic headache of recognizing its conversion by current President Recep Tayyep Erdogan in 2020, along with many other churches in the country.

Leo is the third pope to visit the Blue Mosque, after Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor, Pope Francis. Benedict paid his visit in 2006, months after coming under fire for making remarks critical of  Islam at the University of Regensburg, in Germany. At the time, Benedict was only the second pope to ever visit a mosque, after Pope John Paul II.

Pope Francis visited Turkey, and paid his respects at the Blue Mosque, in 2015.

“I think this red line of continuity is telling, because it’s continuity in perseverance,” said the Rev. Claudio Monge, director of the Dominican Study Institute’s Center for Intercultural Dialogue in Istanbul, pointing to the uneven history of Catholic-Muslim relations.

Christians are not formally recognized in the Turkey, where they make up less than 2% of the population, making it impossible for Christian organizations to register with the government or own property. While anti-Christian persecution is rare, but “white martyrdom, that isn’t aggressive, but more often than not makes daily life difficult,” is common, according to Monge.

Official Christian-Muslim dialogue “doesn’t really exist,” said the Dominican friar. What does exist, he added, “is a dialogue between Muslim believers and Christian believers.” 

Monge said that “for every two steps forward, there are three steps back” in establishing a better platform for dialogue. He said this is not only true for believers, but especially for foreigners in the country. “We must not forget that the church in Turkey is made up of foreigners who have been living here for many years,” said Monge, who moved to Istanbul from Italy 24 years ago.

Leo’s visit to the Blue Mosque, Monge said, will help bridge the divide between the two faiths. “Let’s not forget that the great challenge today is to stem this emerging violence, which is not really religiously motivated, but is often given religious legitimacy,” he said.

“I think that the pope’s appeals for peace, reconciliation, disarming hearts – just as he did in the first days of his election – will invite both sides to seriously address issue and recognize the error of putting God in the middle of this,” Monge said.

Outside the Blue Mosque, Ahmed Imam spends his days convincing the crowd of tourists and worshippers to buy goods from his cart. Born in Syria, Imam called himself an atheist, confirmed that religion in Turkey will determine how its residents will respond to the pope’s visit.

“I think 51% of Turkish people, they don’t like the pope… they don’t like the Christians,” he said. The half of the country that is more secular, he said, will recognize that the pope’s respectful tour of the Blue Mosque as a positive sign.