Pope visits Turkey amid Christian-Muslim tensions
When a pope last visited Turkey - Benedict XVI in 2006 - Muslim-Catholic tensions were so high that the Vatican added a stop at Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque at the last minute in hopes of showing Benedict's respect for Islam.
Pope Francis will travel to Turkey this weekend amid new Muslim-Christian tensions and war next door, with Islamic State militants seizing chunks of Iraq and Syria and sending 1.6 million refugees across the border into Turkey.
Francis is expected to tread lightly during his three-day visit, sensitive to the delicate diplomatic tensions at play between Turkey and the international coalition fighting the Islamic State.
But Vatican officials say he will not shy from denouncing violence in God's name and voicing concern for Christians being targeted by the extremists. Remarkably, though, Francis will not meet with any groups of refugees as he has done on previous trips to the region, a clear sign of the Vatican's unwillingness to wade too deeply into the conflict.
