Holding inflight news conference, pope talks about peace in Gaza, Ukraine

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM TURKEY (CNS) — On his first foreign papal trip, Pope Leo XIV showed reporters that the inflight news conferences of his predecessors would continue.

And, in fact, he added the unusual twist Nov. 30 of answering reporters’ questions in the middle of a trip as he flew from Turkey to Lebanon.

During the two-hour flight, he came to the journalists’ section of the plane, spoke about the ecumenical importance of his trip and answered questions posed by two Turkish journalists.

He had met privately with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Nov. 27, the first day of his trip, but neither the Vatican nor the president had issued a statement about their conversation.

A reporter asked if they had discussed the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza; the pope said they had.

“On this trip, there was a special theme of being a messenger of peace, of wanting to promote peace throughout the region,” Pope Leo said.

As for Gaza, he said, “the Holy See for many years has publicly supported a proposal for a two-state solution” in the Holy Land with Israel and Palestine being fully independent nations, secure within defined borders.

“We all know that right now Israel does not accept that solution, but we see it as the only possible solution to the conflict they continually live,” Pope Leo said.

“We are also friends with Israel,” he said, “and with both sides we try to be a mediating voice that can help approach a solution with justice for all.”

Pope Leo also noted that Erdogan repeatedly had offered to mediate direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in a search for peace.

“Unfortunately,” the pope said, “we’ve not yet seen a solution, but today there are concrete proposals for peace, and we hope that President Erdogan, with his relationship with the presidents of Ukraine, Russia and the United States, can help in this sense to promote dialogue, a ceasefire, and see how to resolve this conflict, this war in Ukraine.”

Before he had responded to the questions, Pope Leo spoke about the celebrations he joined in Turkey for the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.

“We had that magnificent celebration” Nov. 28 at Iznik, he said. It was “very simple, but very profound, at the site of one of the ancient basilicas of Nicaea to commemorate the great event of the agreement of the whole Christian community on the profession of faith, the Nicene Creed.”

The ecumenical events, he said, culminated Nov. 30 with the pope’s attendance at a Divine Liturgy celebrated by Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

Pope Leo also spoke briefly about a discussion he had Nov. 29 with Patriarch Bartholomew and the leaders of other Orthodox and Protestant churches about a possible joint celebration in 2033 of the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The idea of holding an ecumenical celebration in Jerusalem, he said, was part of a discussion of “possible future encounters.”

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