Pope Leo XIV has urged Christians in Europe and North America to move beyond fears of Islam, arguing that such anxieties are often stirred up by anti-migrant activists. Speaking to reporters at the end of a trip to Turkey and Lebanon, he highlighted his meetings with Muslim leaders and praised Lebanon as an example of coexistence between Christians and Muslims after years of conflict.
During a press conference with reporters on the plane returning from a six-day visit to Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV addressed concerns among some European Catholics who view Islam as a threat to Christianity. Asked whether such fears were justified, he replied that they were often linked to hostility toward immigrants and called for greater openness toward people of different backgrounds.
“All of the conversations that I had during my time both in Turkey and in Lebanon, including with many Muslims, were precisely concentrated on the topic of peace and respect of people of different religions,” Pope Leo said, acknowledging that relations among faiths have not always been peaceful. “I know that as a matter of fact, that has not always been the case,” he added.
Turning to Europe and the United States, he observed that anxieties about Islam are frequently inflamed by political actors who oppose migration. “I know that in Europe, there are many times fears that are present, but oftentimes generated by people who are against immigration and trying to keep out people who may be from another country, another religion, another race,” he told reporters, according to multiple news accounts. He said one of the aims of his journey was “to raise the world’s attention to the possibility that dialogue and friendship between Muslims and Christians is possible,” urging societies to “be a little less fearful and look for ways of promoting authentic dialogue and respect.”
The pope pointed to Lebanon’s experience as a multi-faith society to reinforce his message. Once widely viewed as a relatively prosperous and vibrant country in the 1960s, Lebanon later became the stage for a devastating civil war that was intensified by the presence and activities of Palestinian armed groups, including factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO was founded in 1964 in East Jerusalem, then under Jordanian control, and subsequently recruited Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, trained and armed them, and launched attacks across the border into Israel, prompting Israeli reprisals.
Analysts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies have noted that Lebanon’s Christian establishment regarded the Palestinian militias as a threat to the state and generally aligned with Western powers and global capitalism, forming what became known as the Christian Right. Many Lebanese Muslims, by contrast, backed the Palestinian cause and forged ties with leftist movements and governments abroad, forming the Muslim-led Left. Over the course of the conflict, which formally ended in 1990 with the Taif Agreement, Muslim- and left-leaning forces gained the upper hand over their Christian right-wing rivals, reshaping the country’s political balance.
Despite this history of bloodshed and displacement, Pope Leo praised Lebanon as an example of interfaith cooperation. “I think one of the great lessons that Lebanon can teach to the world is precisely showing a land where Islam, Christianity are both present and are respected and that there is a possibility to live together, to be friends,” he said. He cited stories he heard during his trip of Christians and Muslims helping one another after their villages were destroyed, saying such examples showed how communities could come together and rebuild. Those experiences, he argued, should be instructive for Europe and North America, where he appealed for “authentic dialogue and respect” between religious communities.
His stance stands in contrast to the views of Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a conservative American prelate and author of the book Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ. In that work, Burke writes that “if you really understand Islam, you understand that the Church really should be afraid of it,” and argues that Islam, as he interprets it, aspires to political as well as religious dominance. Burke has repeated that assessment in interviews discussing the book, underscoring a sharp difference in tone from Pope Leo’s emphasis on engagement and coexistence.