POPE URGES RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN TURKEY
By Brian Murphy
Associated Press
Nov 29 2006
Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport,
Turkey, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006. The pontiff is in Turkey on a
four-day official visit. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)
ISTANBUL, Turkey – Pope Benedict XVI began his pilgrimage among
Turkey’s tiny Christian communities Wednesday by paying homage to an
Italian priest slain during Islamic protests and expressing sympathy
for the pressures facing religious minorities in the Muslim world.
The messages _ made at one of the holiest Christian sites in Turkey _
could set the tone for the remainder of Benedict’s first papal trip
to a Muslim nation as he tries to strengthen bonds with the spiritual
leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
The pope is expected to sharpen his calls for what the Vatican calls
"reciprocity" _ that Muslim demands for greater respect in the West
must be matched by increased tolerance and freedom for Christians in
Islamic nations.
But too much pressure by the Roman Catholic pontiff could risk new
friction with Muslims after broad gestures of goodwill in the opening
hours of the trip Tuesday that sought to ease simmering Muslim anger
over the pope’s remarks on violence and the Prophet Muhammad.
A statement claiming to be from al-Qaida in Iraq denounced the pope’s
visit as part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam and an attempt to
"extinguish the burning ember of Islam" in Turkey. Vatican spokesman
the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the declaration _ posted on several
Islamic militant Web sites _ shows the need for faiths to fight
"violence in the name of God."
He said "neither the pope nor his entourage are worried."
The pope’s deepening ties with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
I _ called the "first among equals" of the Orthodox leaders _
also is watched with suspicion in Turkey as a possible challenge to
state-imposed limits on Christian minorities and others. Benedict has
declared a "fundamental" commitment to try to heal rifts between the
two ancient branches of Christianity, which split nearly 1,000 years
ago over disputes including papal authority.
At Bartholemew’s walled compound in Istanbul, the pope stood amid
black-robbed Orthodox clerics and urged both sides "to work for full
unity of Catholics and Orthodox."
The pope began the day at the ruins of a small stone home at the end
of a dirt road near the Aegean Sea _ the site where the Virgin Mary
is thought to have spent her last years.
At an outdoor Mass attended by 250 invited guests, the pope noted
the challenges facing the "little flock" of Christians in Turkey.
"I have wanted to convey my personal love and spiritual closeness,
together with that of the universal church, to the Christian community
here in Turkey, a small minority which faces many challenges and
difficulties daily," the pope said.
At times, he smiled and showed flashes of the pastoral flair of his
predecessor, John Paul II, in one of the most intimate papal gatherings
since John Paul’s trip to remote Mount Sinai during a trip to Egypt
in 2000.
Benedict went on to honor the memory of a Catholic priest who was
slain in Turkey amid Muslim anger over the publication in European
newspapers of caricatures of Muhammad.
"Let us sing joyfully, even when we’re tested by difficulties and
dangers as we have learned from the fine witness given by the Rev.
Andrea Santoro, whom I am pleased to recall in this celebration," said
Benedict, who later walked amid the crowd as they reached to touch
his gold-and-white robes and cried "Viva il Papa" and "Benedetto,"
his name in Italian.
In February, a Turkish teenager shot the Italian priest as he knelt in
prayer in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. The attack was
believed to have been linked to outrage over the cartoons. Two other
Catholic priests were attacked this year in Turkey, where Christians
have often complained of discrimination and persecution.
On Tuesday, the pope urged religious leaders of all faiths to "utterly
refuse" to support any form of violence in the name of faith. He also
said religious freedom was an essential element of democratic values.
He sought a careful balance as he held out a hand of friendship and
brotherhood to Muslims, and expressed support for measures that Turkey
has taken in its campaign to join the European Union.
But winning over Turkish sentiments may be easy compared with the
complexities ahead.
The legacy of Christianity in Turkey is a tangle of historical and
religious sensitivities.
Turkish armies captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople _ now
Istanbul _ in 1453 to begin a steady decline for Christians, who had
maintained communities in Asia Minor since the time of the Apostles.
As the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early 20th century, large
numbers of Armenian Christians perished in mass expulsions and
fighting. Turkey vehemently denies that it committed genocide against
Armenians, though many nations have classified the World War I-era
killings as such.
Later, in the 1920s, Turkey and Greece carried out a massive population
exchange under the treaty that established modern Turkey, with hundreds
of thousands of Greek Orthodox sent to Greece and smaller numbers of
Muslims going the other way.
Bartholomew heads the remnants of the Greek community in Istanbul that
now number no more than 2,000 among about 90,000 Christians in Turkey.
But they still represent a powerful symbolic presence for the world’s
more than 250 million Orthodox, which often denounce Turkey for
placing obstacles in the way of Bartholomew and his clerics.
Turkey refuses to acknowledge the "ecumenical," or universal, title
of the patriarch and instead considers him only the head of the local
Greek Orthodox community. The Turkish worry is that granting wider
status to the patriarch could undermine the idea of a single Turkish
nationality _ a pillar of the nation’s secular system _ and inspire
demands for special recognition by minorities including Kurds and
Muslim groups such as Sufis and Alawites, considered a branch of
Shiite Islam.
Now, Turkish officials are concerned the papal visit and support
for Christian minorities could embolden Bartholomew to press Turkey
for concessions, including return of confiscated property and the
reopening of a Greek Orthodox seminary that closed more than two
decades ago after authorities blocked new students. The EU has also
pushed Turkey for greater religious openness to help its faltering
bid for membership.
"Against the backdrop of universal peace, the yearning for full
communion and concord between all Christians becomes even more profound
and intense," he said at the ancient Christian site.
Nestling on a mountain in woods between the ancient city of Ephesus
and the town of Selcuk, near the Aegean coast, St. John the Apostle
is believed to have brought the Virgin Mary to the house to care for
her after Jesus’ death. Another belief maintains that the Virgin Mary
died in Jerusalem.
The ruins of the house, whose earliest foundations date to the first
century, have become a popular place of pilgrimage for both Muslims
and Christians since the 1950s.
A chapel was built over the ruins, and some believe in the healing
powers of both the chapel and waters flowing from a nearby spring.
Of Turkey’s 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox
Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic and 3,500 are Protestant,
mostly converts from Islam. Another 23,000 are Jewish.
AP writer Victor L. Simpson contributed to this report.