While Türkiye is 99 per cent Muslim, Christianity and Judaism are also present in the country.

In an interview with Vatican News’ Christopher Wells reporting on the ground in Türkiye, Fr. Alexander Jernej sheds light on the small Catholic community in Istanbul.

A Vincentian priest belonging to the province of Austria and Germany, Fr. Jernej serves as the superior of the Austrian community of St. George in Türkiye’s capital city and explains that the Catholics there come from a variety of backgrounds and nationalities.

He also says the number of Turkish Catholics is growing, expressing what “a great joy” it is for them to “see that the local Church is also growing.”

Türkiye is a secular state with no official religion, following the constitutional amendment of 1924. As Christianity is a minority in the country, numbers have been reported around 100,000 divided into different denominations: Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Assyrian-Chaldean.

Yet, Fr. Jernej describes the ecumenical relations with other Christian churches as “very familiar.” They visit each other and “celebrate the week of prayer for unity—eight full days here in Istanbul.”

A papal presence

Now, as Pope Leo makes his first Apostolic Journey to Türkiye, Fr. Jernej stresses that they are happy the Holy Father will visit the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, as well as other patriarchs and the local Catholic community.

“We are very excited, and we’re looking forward to this great occasion,” the Vincentian superior notes.

Pope Leo is not the first pontiff to visit Istanbul. Four of his predecessors have also made the journey: Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006, and Francis in 2014; while Archbishop Angelo Roncalli—who later became Pope John XXIII—served in Istanbul as Apostolic Delegate to Türkiye and Greece from 1935 to 1944.