Pope Leo XIV urged the construction of various religious bridges to achieve world peace during a public mass in Türkiye. From Istanbul, Yunus Soner, teleSUR Correspondent.
00:00Popolio XIV urged the construction of bridges to achieve world peace during a public mass in Turquille.
00:21From Istanbul, a correspondent, Yunus On Air, has the details.
00:25Good evening from Istanbul, Turkey, where the Pope Leo XIV has just concluded his mass prayer and thus his final public activity here in the city in front of 4,000 believers and priests of all religions.
00:49He said that it is time to build bridges. He gave the example of the three bridges over the Bosporus, the strait that separates here, Europe and Asia in the city of Istanbul.
01:03And he called to build three kinds of bridges as well.
01:07First bridge is among the Catholic churches of Latin, Syriac and Armenian and other branches to build bridges within the Catholic church.
01:19The first bridge he called for was to build a bridge between the Catholic church and the Orthodox church.
01:27And this was a topic that he actively displayed also during the day.
01:32And the third bridge he called to build was the bridge between different religions, between different churches, between the Christianity and Islam and other religions as well.
01:44And his day, his today's program was according to this proposal.
01:49In the morning, Leo XIV has visited the Sultan Ahmed mosque, which is one of the most important mosques here in the city.
01:57It is one of the biggest and oldest mosques.
02:00So he displayed there the message of the importance of inter-religious dialogue and understanding.
02:08Then he continued to visit the Syriac Orthodox church, Mor Efrem, and later on he gathered together with Bartholomeo I,
02:16who is the patriarch of the Constantinople Church of Orthodox Belief and a symbol for the Orthodox world in general.
02:26So with Bartholomeo, Leo XIV made a public statement, public prayer and also a public declaration,
02:33where they called both to deepen the dialogue between the Catholic church and the Orthodox church,
02:40to continue the mixed commission on theological affairs and to deepen cooperation and getting closer both churches.
02:51He also recalled the Nikean creed, remembered that yesterday was a ceremony in ancient Nikea, today is Iznik,
02:59where 1,700 years ago more than 200 bishops had gathered to take important decisions for Christian theology.
03:08So this has been a day of building bridges, of displaying to build bridges,
03:15and both Leo XIV and Bartholomeo I emphasized in their declaration also that this building of bridges
03:23and getting closer and together believers of different religions is of utmost importance in a world with that much war and conflict.
03:35They called to stop all violence that has been pursued in the name of any religion and they called all politicians and civilian leaders to work for peace,
03:48which also they described as the path to God.
03:52So this was a day where Pope Leo's activities here in Istanbul, Turkey were described,
03:59were heading towards building bridges among churches, among religions and on the topic, the main aspect of achieving global peace.
04:10He will tomorrow have some meetings here in Istanbul still and in the afternoon he will continue his travel to Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon.
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