Pope removes shoes but doesn't pray on visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque

[lapucelle]

26. It may have had something to do with the way that the invitation was extended.

Praying at a mosque and worshiping at a mosque are two different things.

“I offered [to] him, if he would like to worship here, but he said ‘no, I am just going to look around,” Tunca said afterwards, explaining that “they told me” the pope was going to “pray here”.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/29/europe/pope-leo-istanbul-blue-mosque-intl

Leo did not pray at the mosque despite an invitation by an imam. Speaking to reporters after the visit, Asgin Tunca said he had told the pope that the mosque was "Allah's house."

"It's not my house, not your house, (it's the) house of Allah," he said. He said he told Leo: "'If you want, you can worship here,' I said. But he said, 'That's OK.'"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-leo-xiv-travel-blue-mosque-istanbul-turkey/