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ope Leo XIV on Wednesday presided over his first Christmas Eve Mass as head of the Roman Catholic Church, leading the traditional service at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

The Mass was attended by cardinals, bishops, priests, diplomatic representatives accredited to the Holy See, and invited guests. Before the service, Pope Leo greeted worshippers gathered in St. Peter’s Square, offering Christmas wishes to the faithful.

Following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected on May 8 as the 267th pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Leo XIV.

In his homily, the pope criticized materialism, warning that a distorted economic system treats human beings as commodities.

Observers noted that, unlike his predecessor Pope Francis, Leo began the Christmas Eve Mass later than in recent years, closer to midnight, and conducted a longer service. Media reports interpreted the timing as a symbolic return to older Vatican traditions.

Pope condemns Gaza conditions

On Thursday, during his first Christmas Day sermon, Pope Leo drew attention to the humanitarian conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza, delivering an unusually direct appeal during the solemn celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth.

Reflecting on the nativity story while presiding over Christmas Holy Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope said Jesus’ birth in a stable showed how God chose to dwell among humanity in fragility.

“How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?” he asked, referring to widespread displacement caused by Israel.

Leo, the first pope from the United States, is known for a more reserved and diplomatic preaching style but has repeatedly voiced concern in recent months over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Call for compassion amid global conflicts

The pope also lamented the suffering of homeless populations worldwide and the devastation caused by ongoing wars, saying modern conflicts continue to leave behind destruction and long-lasting trauma.

“Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds,” he said.

Leo further highlighted the plight of young people forced into armed conflict, criticizing what he described as hollow rhetoric that sends them to fight and die.

Later on Thursday, Pope Leo is expected to deliver his traditional Urbi et Orbi (“To the City and the World”) message, which typically addresses major global crises and calls for peace.

(Source: Anadolu and Reuters)

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urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday welcomed Pope Leo XIV to Türkiye, calling the visit “a very important step that strengthens our common ground” at a time of rising regional instability and global tensions. The pope, on his first foreign trip since taking office, will spend four days in Türkiye before heading to Lebanon.

Pope Leo XIV arrived in Ankara earlier in the day and began his visit by paying respects at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Türkiye. He is scheduled to visit several major cities, including Istanbul and Iznik, historically known as Nicaea, a central location in the early Christian Church.

The visit comes at Erdoğan’s official invitation and underscores Türkiye’s stated commitment to fostering dialogue between the Muslim and Christian worlds.

Erdoğan: Visit offers hope for regional and global peace

Speaking alongside the pope at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Erdoğan emphasized the symbolic importance of the visit.

“I believe the messages to be delivered from Türkiye with Pope Leo XIV will reach both the Turkish-Islamic world and the Christian world, and will strengthen hope for peace around the globe,” he said.

Erdoğan noted that the timing is critical, pointing to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the Russia-Ukraine war, and rising global polarization. He said the pope’s voice could make a meaningful contribution to diplomatic efforts, especially regarding peace initiatives between Moscow and Kyiv.

Erdoğan reaffirmed Türkiye’s identity as a country where multiple faiths have coexisted for centuries.

“Mosques, churches, and synagogues stand side by side in Türkiye,” he said, listing landmark sites such as Istanbul’s Hagia Irene Museum and Neve Shalom Synagogue, Trabzon’s Sumela Monastery, and Van’s Akdamar Museum.

He stressed Türkiye’s record in protecting religious heritage, saying nearly 100 churches, monasteries, and places of worship have been restored since his party came to power in 2002, with five more to reopen by year’s end.

Erdoğan repeated Türkiye’s commitment to equality, stating: “Every one of our citizens, regardless of language, religion, sect, or ethnic background, is a first-class citizen of the Republic of Türkiye. We will not allow even a single person to face discrimination.”

The pope’s planned visit to the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque was highlighted by Erdoğan as a continuation of efforts to build constructive relations between Muslims and Christians.

Meetings with Turkish officials and religious leaders

Following private and delegation-level talks with Erdoğan, Pope Leo XIV met Safi Arpagus, head of the Diyanet, in a closed-door meeting. He also visited the Vatican Embassy in Ankara.

Erdoğan praised the pope’s strong emphasis on safeguarding the family institution amid social and cultural challenges.
“Regardless of our faith,” he said, “we are all members of one great human family.”

The Turkish president used the occasion to address global intolerance, saying that “intolerance feeds conflict, and conflict feeds division and hatred.” He pointed to rising Islamophobia and xenophobia in the West, describing them as manifestations of a broader cycle of discrimination.

Erdoğan said Türkiye will continue to shoulder regional responsibilities despite “surrounding conflicts, crises, and injustices,” positioning the country as a mediator seeking peace and stability.

‘Our greatest debt to the Palestinian people is justice’

On the ongoing Gaza genocide, Erdoğan delivered one of the strongest messages of the day, saying that humanity’s greatest obligation is “justice” for Palestinians.

He reiterated Türkiye’s support for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and expressed appreciation for Pope Leo XIV’s — and previous popes’ — consistent stance on Palestinian rights.

Erdoğan warned that Israeli military actions throughout Gaza, including attacks on churches and mosques, are destroying historical and religious heritage. Among the damaged sites he mentioned was Gaza’s Holy Family Church, administered by the Catholic Church.

He stressed the importance of preserving the historical status quo in East Jerusalem, calling it “critical” to ensuring peace and stability in the region.

Pope Leo XIV’s trip, which will also take him to symbolic sites such as Istanbul and Iznik (Nicaea), is widely seen as an effort to revive interfaith dialogue and reinforce diplomatic bridges at a moment of global uncertainty.

For Türkiye, the visit provides an opportunity to underscore its role as a meeting point of civilizations and a mediator in multiple international crises.

The pope will continue his engagements in Türkiye through Sunday before departing for Lebanon.

(Source: Anadolu Agency)

Throughout history, ties between Christian and Islamic leaders have had more downs than ups. It was Pope Urban II who launched the first Crusade in 1095 triggering almost two centuries of hostilities. But in recent times, relations have largely improved. Pope John Paul II made significant efforts to advance the cause of Catholic-Islamic relations. He condemned the siege of Sarajevo repeatedly. When John Paul II visited Damascus, and prayed at the Umayyad Mosque in 2001, it was the first ever Papal visit to a mosque. Pope Benedict XVI prayed in the Blue or Sultan Ahmet Mosque in his visit to Istanbul in 2006.

However, Benedict’s gesture was in large part to make up for what was seen as a disastrous Regensburg address in September 2008. In the speech, he cited a conversation between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian scholar, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Most Muslims took offence at what they perceived to be the Pope arguing that Islam was inherently violent and evil. The former Pope perhaps to heal ties then changed his position from opposing Turkish entry to the European Union to supporting it. Relations with Al Azhar also were put on pause after Pope Benedict called for the protection of Egyptian Christians after an attack on a Coptic church in 2011. Benedict as a German Pope tended to see everything through a very Eurocentric prism.

Pope Francis has over the last seven years made strenuous efforts to reset ties. Aside from his meetings with the Grand Shaikh of Al Azhar, he has reached out to many figures in the Islamic World. In 2014, he visited Palestine and met with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein. This year he made the first ever Papal visit to Iraq in March and was able to sit down with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, one of the pre-eminent clerics in Shia Islam. Islamic prayers were uttered within the walls of the Vatican for the first time ever back in 2014.

The Vatican-Azhar ties were most profoundly illustrated when Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed signed the document on “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” in February 2019. The introduction described the document as “…a joint declaration of good and heartfelt aspirations. It is a document that invites all persons who have faith in God and faith in human fraternity to unite and work together so that it may serve as a guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect…” This formed the basis for an ensuing Papal encyclical entitled, “Fratelli tutti” that was certainly forward thinking.

Productive ties between leaders of different religious traditions matter. One hopes that they retain a positive influence amongst their flock. Who knows if some of the more extreme elements might turn their heads when Popes, Grand Ayatollahs and Grand Muftis work together? One can only hope that increasingly such comings together include senior Jewish and other religious figures from other faiths.

In Europe and North American anti-Islamic sentiment is rife. It has existed of course for centuries in differing forms but in the modern era the events of 1979 and 2001 certainly drove Islamophobia on. The Iranian Revolution saw a major rift with the West and notably the U.S. which continues today. The fatwa against the author Salman Rushdie did not help at all nor did the Danish cartoons crisis, both issues where the divides were considerable. The 9/11 attacks triggered huge anger in the U.S. and elsewhere but also a series of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere which saw hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilian lives lost.

The Islamist extremist attacks by the likes of Al Qaida and Daesh also drove these sentiments. The world stood with Paris, Berlin and London as they suffered vile attacks with major landmarks being lit up.

Much of the above anger is understandable. Such attacks were unconscionable. But the 9/11 attacks did not represent Islam and nor does Al Qaida and Daesh. For the overwhelming majority of Muslims, they are an abomination. Even Donald Trump pointed out that the greatest victims of Al Qaida and Daesh violence have been Muslims. However, at a public level, this is rarely understood. All too often the Western media focusses intently on the western victims of Islamist violence not the Muslims. Daesh’s beheadings of western journalists and aid workers in Syria led to military intervention but little was said of the much larger numbers of Syrians and Iraqis beheaded and even crucified by the group.

However, too many leaders in Europe and North America instrumentalized this hatred as opposed to calming the situation and directing the struggle at those truly responsible. It was more convenient to depict Islam and Muslims as a threat than as part of the solution. This continues today as the likes of Viktor Orban of Hungary likes to portray his country as the last bastion of Christendom against the hordes of Islam as if Vienna was back under Ottoman siege once more. “Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? There is no alternative, and we have no option but to defend our borders.”

Anti-Immigration like Islamophobia is a vote winner. Hence Muslim immigrants are doubly vulnerable to this, depicted as a cultural, economic and a terrorist threat.’

Anti-Immigration like Islamophobia is a vote winner. Hence Muslim immigrants are doubly vulnerable to this, depicted as a cultural, economic and a terrorist threat’ even though research shows that every act of terrorism in the U.S. since 9/11 has been committed by a citizen or legal resident. The threat is not foreign as the far right likes to portray. But blame the immigrant anyway.

The treatment of refugees is also damning, not least when European powers do so little to help those making the terrifying dangerous Mediterranean crossings. Few make the difference between migrants and refugees, those fleeing conflicts and oppression. Our societies are the poorer for putting up walls, physical and psychological. We need to explore other means of resolving these crises without having to resort to inhuman incarceration or refusing to help save lives of innocent people.

Pope Francis tried to play a positive role. In 2016, he washed the feet of 12 immigrants, some of whom were Muslim and following a visit to the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, he arranged for the Vatican to host 12 Syrian Muslim refugees. But did this get the attention it deserved, and did it stem in any meaningful way the tidal wave of anti-Muslim, anti-immigration hatred? The Pope called on every Catholic diocese to host refugees but the take up was very poor.

Islamophobia still does not get the attention it merits. Many belittle the issue and fail to recognize how widespread this issue has become. Social media is a cesspool of hatred on all issues. In the first 24 hours after the Christchurch mosques’ massacres in 2019, Facebook removed 1,500,000 videos of the attack that killed 50 Muslims. Some uploads were watched over 20,000 times.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not help. Extremists feel empowered by conflicts to vent their hatred. Jewish communities in Europe are not responsible for Israeli crimes, just as Muslims worldwide are not responsible for the crimes of Al Qaida and Daesh.

Liberation theology can provide a critical and deep understanding of how politics and religion, and in particular the Catholic Church in Latin America, are interrelated. Liberation theology reveals how religion can be used as a vehicle to justify and translate the religious understanding of politics into concrete action. The message that advocates of liberation theology want to convey is that religion is heavily involved in society, and that the core and essence of its teaching is to advocate on behalf of the oppressed – even if it comes at a cost.

During the 1960s and 1970s, a debate emerged in Latin America that aimed to provide a critique of liberation. In the Latin American context, liberation theology was viewed as a means to strengthen the Church’s presence in public life. It rejected lecturing people from an ivory tower and losing touch with reality under the banner that the church should be separate from politics and that religion should remain pacifist even in cases where oppressed groups are subjected to violence. Concepts such as wisdom and rational knowledge became secondary and complementary to the notion of liberation.

In this context, liberation had three meanings: (1) political liberation, meaning the liberation of oppressed nations; (2) religious liberation, meaning people’s liberation from “sins”; and (3) historical liberation, meaning the liberation of humans as part of the course of history.

The introduction of political liberation to the overall meaning of liberation shifted the discourse and the involvement of the Catholic Church in politics and public life in Latin America. This revolutionary definition of liberation made actors, who had control and influence over the Church for a long time, such as the Vatican and the U.S. administration, feel uncomfortable. Put simply, this new discourse threatened their influence over the Church and its followers.

In 1984, the Vatican issued a document directed at its churches and followers warning them against the theology of liberation, which was advocated by a group associated with the Catholic Church.

In 1984, the Vatican issued a document directed at its churches and followers warning them against the theology of liberation, which was advocated by a group associated with the Catholic Church. These attempts didn’t prove successful and they indirectly contributed to strengthening the liberation discourse of the Church and its clergy.

The first meeting of the Catholic liberation clergy was held in Colombia in 1968. In 1972, a year before the military coup in the country, another theology of liberation conference was held in Chile, organized by a group called “Christians for Socialism.” The declared goal of the conference was to encourage human rights against authoritarian regimes and to give meaning to theology by connecting it to society and politics.

Ernesto Cardenal, a scholar, painter, artist, poet, and political figure, is considered one of the leading names of the theology of liberation in Latin America. He was among a number of priests in Nicaragua who led a revolution against the Somoza family, which governed the country for more than 43 years.

He eventually became the minister of culture after the revolution and engaged in a campaign to spread literacy and culture in the country. Eventually, he resigned following differences over managing the country’s affairs with his comrade and president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega.

When Pope St. John Paul II visited Nicaragua in 1983, he openly asked that Cardenal and four other priests who advocated the theology of liberation be removed from governmental posts over their involvement in the revolution and public life.

When Pope St. John Paul II visited Nicaragua in 1983, he openly asked that Cardenal and four other priests who advocated the theology of liberation be removed from governmental posts over their involvement in the revolution and public life.

A famous photo of Pope John Paul and Cardenal shows the former telling the latter that he “must fix [his] affairs with the Church.” A year later, the pope suspended Cardenal because of his role in politics – the order lasted until 2019, when Pope Francis lifted it.

Liberation Theology in the Middle East

In the Middle East, the theology of liberation has gained prominence in countries which suffer from oppression with attempts made to create a movement of Arab theology in Egypt. In Palestine, Hilarion Capucci, a Syrian Roman Catholic priest who was located in Jerusalem, was involved in smuggling weapons to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) through Jordan and Lebanon. As a result, he was imprisoned in Israel for 3.5 years, during which period he went on hunger strike a number of times. He was eventually released as part of a deal between Israel and the Vatican whereupon he was relocated to Latin America.

Capucci spent the rest of his life in exile in Rome. Ironically, he has supported the Assad government despite the immense suffering, destruction, and displacement it has caused the Syrian people. In 2019, a drama series was produced about Capucci which served as propaganda to whitewash Assad and his regime.

Theodosios (Hanna) of Sebastia is the archbishop of Sebastia, a position he holds under the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and is known for his opposition to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories. He is seen at nearly every Palestinian national conference or protest.

In late 2019, his political stance almost cost him his life. Theodosios accused Israel of attempting to poison him over his stance against its occupation of Jerusalem after Israeli forces fired a gas canister into his Jerusalem church. He was rushed to hospital and later received treatment in Jordan.

The theology of liberation is an attempt to show that devout Christians around the world see the role of the Church in public life and politics as going beyond feeding the poor and offering them prayers. Its advocates assert that Christianity is about defending the poor and vulnerable, and sacrificing one’s life for this purpose. Christianity, for them, is not simply offering prayers and shying away from public engagement.