Bartholomew I

(Newser) - Pope Leo XIV marked a high point of his his first foreign trip as pontiff Friday with a pilgrimage to the site in Turkey where early Christian church leaders met 1,700 years ago under the auspices of the Roman Emperor Constantine to host the Council of Nicaea. The brief...

(Newser) - Pope Francis and the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians demanded an end to the persecution of religious minorities in Syria and Iraq today and called for dialogue with Muslims, capping Francis' three-day visit to Turkey with a strong show of Christian unity. Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew...

(Newser) - The pope's Holy Land visit has been full of surprises. In an unplanned move today, Pope Francis stopped to pray at the concrete wall dividing Bethlehem and Jerusalem—a wall which, to Palestinans, symbolizes oppression by Israel, Reuters notes. Graffiti where he prayed read, "Free Palestine." The...