Just seven months after his election, Pope Leo XIV will set out on his first journey abroad. From November 27 to 30, he will visit Turkey , before continuing on to Lebanon , where his stay will last until December 2. In this way, the American-born leader of the Catholic Church carries forward the international outreach of his predecessors. Today, papal travel is regarded as an essential part of the office, which is "hard to imagine without it," observes church historian Jörg Ernesti in