Leo paid tribute to the country's tiny Catholic community and also visited a group of nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, who run a nursing home in Istanbul.

Pope Paul VI was the first leader of the Church to leave Italy in 150 years. He made nine foreign visits, with the first a trip to Israel and Jordan in 1964. He travelled to the U.N. headquarters in New York in 1965, where he addressed the General Assembly in French, pleading: "No more war, never again war!"

Pope Leo XIV dedicated the final morning of his visit to Turkey on Sunday to strengthening ties with the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Pope Leo XIV traveled to join Orthodox patriarchs in commemorating an important moment in Christian history, gathering at the site in Turkey of an unprecedented A.D. 325 meeting of bishops to pray that Christians might once again be reunited.

Pope Leo XIV praised the endurance and faith of the Armenian people during a visit to Istanbul, where he addressed the Armenian Apostolic community at their cathedral, a diaspora church rooted in a country where Armenians suffered genocide under the Ottoman Empire.

Five years after Beirut port tragedy, families look to Pope Leo to keep justice alive as the pontiff prepares to pray at the site of the Aug. 4, 2020, blast that killed 200 people.

"You have time! You have more time to dream, to plan and to do good," the pope said. "You are the present, and the future is already taking shape in your hands! You have the enthusiasm to change the course of history!

In a brief greeting to the press after departing Rome for his debut international trip Thursday, Pope Leo wished journalists on board a Happy Thanksgiving and received gifts of pumpkin and pecan pie.