Analysts Advise Pope Leo to Avoid Appeasing Turkey’s Persecution of Christians
As Pope Leo XIV begins his six-day apostolic journey to Turkey—his first overseas trip since ascending the papacy—religious freedom advocates are intensifying calls for him to confront Ankara’s mounting repression of Christians and Jews. A newly released 50-page report by the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), published on 24 November 2025, outlines what it describes as entrenched “legal, institutional, and social hostility” faced by Turkey’s remaining non-Muslim communities.¹ The timing of the report, emerging just days before the Pope’s arrival, has amplified concern that the visit may be used to project a veneer of tolerance without addressing ongoing violations.
According to the ECLJ, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government continues to frame national identity around Turkish ethnicity and Sunni Islam, casting Christians and Jews as “foreign,” “subversive,” or aligned with outside powers.² The Christian presence in Anatolia has collapsed from approximately 20% of the population in 1915 to under 0.3% today—an attrition the report attributes to a century of targeted violence, forced displacement, legal discrimination, and institutional erasure.³ Only around 257,000 Christians and 12,000–16,000 Jews remain nationwide.⁴
The report documents a significant rise in hate crimes: incidents targeting Christians more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.⁵ Recent attacks include the New Year’s Eve 2025 Islamist shooting at an association linked to the Kurtuluş Protestant Church and the Islamic State attack inside Santa Maria Catholic Church in January 2024, which left an Alevi worshipper dead.⁶ Parallel findings from the Stockholm Center for Freedom confirm the persistent discrimination faced by Armenian, Greek, Jewish, and Alevi communities.⁷
Despite this context, Pope Leo’s initial public statements in Turkey have thus far focused on “mutual respect,” “the dignity of every person,” and the cultivation of “a culture of encounter,” according to reports from Rome Reports and Catholic News Agency.⁸ He has not yet explicitly addressed the systemic nature of Turkey’s repression. Analysts warn that this risks repeating the diplomatic ambiguities seen under previous pontificates. Benedict XVI softened his tone during his 2006 visit following global backlash to the Regensburg address, while Pope Francis consistently avoided naming Islamist governments as persecutors, instead emphasising symbolic gestures like the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration.⁹
Thibault van den Bossche of the ECLJ cautions that Turkey may seek to “instrumentalise” the papal visit to showcase an illusory tolerance.¹⁰ He urged Leo XIV to reaffirm the “fundamental rights of Christians” rather than adopt narratives of “moderate Islam” or Turkish secularism that function primarily as diplomatic facades. “At minimum,” he argued, “Leo can acknowledge that neither ecumenism nor Christian-Muslim dialogue has secured effective protection for Christians in Turkey.”
The situation on the ground reinforces this concern. Turkey has expelled over 200 foreign Christian workers since 2020, issuing security codes such as N-82 and G-87 that label long-term residents as national threats and prohibit re-entry.¹¹ The Alliance Defending Freedom International is currently contesting one such case at the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Kenneth Arthur Wiest, an American who lived in Turkey for four decades before being barred without cause.¹²
Meanwhile, media outlets note signs of cautious optimism surrounding the possible reopening of the Halki Theological School—closed by Turkish authorities since 1971. Associated Press reports indicate renewed speculation that Erdoğan may announce a reopening during the Pope’s visit as part of broader political theatre.¹³ Yet experts warn that even a symbolic concession would not address the deeper structural issues affecting Christian survival in the country.
Vatican officials have faced further criticism for minimising Islamist culpability in global persecution. In October 2025, Cardinal Pietro Parolin described the jihadist massacres in Nigeria as merely “social conflict” between herders and farmers, contradicting extensive documentation from human-rights groups and Nigerian bishops.¹⁴ Pope Leo XIV, though mentioning persecution in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique, Congo, and Sudan, has consistently refrained from identifying Islamist movements as the ideological drivers.¹⁵
Historians note disturbing precedents. During the Armenian and Pontic Greek genocides, Pope Benedict XV limited himself to a polite diplomatic appeal to Sultan Mehmed V despite the slaughter of between 800,000 and one million Christians, including approximately 100,000 Armenian Catholics.¹⁶ Jacques Kornberg’s account describes Benedict’s response as “rhetorical” and devoid of effective intervention.¹⁷ Critics argue this should serve as a warning against repeating patterns of silence or ambiguity in the face of overt religious persecution.
The Holy See Press Office and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue did not respond to new requests for comment.
- ECLJ, Report on Religious Freedom in Turkey, 24 Nov 2025.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.; USCIRF background data (public).
- ECLJ, Report on Religious Freedom in Turkey.
- Ibid., citing documented hate-crime statistics 2021–23.
- Reuters, “Gunman kills worshipper in Istanbul church attack,” 28 Jan 2024; Turkish press, 1 Jan 2025.
- Stockholm Center for Freedom, Minority Rights in Turkey, 2025.
- Rome Reports, “Key points of Pope Leo’s speech in Turkey,” 27 Nov 2025; CNA, “Live updates: Pope Leo’s trip to Turkey,” 26–27 Nov 2025.
- Document on Human Fraternity, Abu Dhabi, 4 Feb 2019.
- ECLJ statement, quoted in Catholic News Agency, 25 Nov 2025.
- Turkish Ministry of Interior, N-82/G-87 enforcement data 2020–25; Deutsche Welle, March 2025.
- ADF International, ECHR filing Wiest v. Turkey, 2025.
- Associated Press, “Optimism ahead of Pope’s visit for reopening of Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox seminary,” 27 Nov 2025.
- Cardinal Pietro Parolin, remarks to Vatican journalists, Oct 2025; Christian Association of Nigeria reports.
- Pope Leo XIV, Angelus and General Audience remarks, 2024–25.
- Raymond Kévorkian, The Armenian Genocide (I.B. Tauris, 2011).
- Jacques Kornberg, The Pope’s Dilemma, Univ. of Toronto Press, 2015.
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