Boston Globe, MA
May 11 2014
Meeting will highlight Christianity in Turkey
Also: Beatifying Pope Paul VI; scammers use the Vatican’s name;
Vatican diplomats shed caution; and a blueprint for papal travel
By John L. Allen Jr.
When Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople meet
this month in Jerusalem, the buzz probably will be about two
milestones from the past: 1054, when Eastern and Western Christianity
split, and 1964, when Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras embraced
in the Holy Land to begin healing the division.
That historic meeting 50 years ago helped launch the modern ecumenical
movement for Christian unity.
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For anyone who understands the realities facing Christianity in the
Middle East today, however, the most relevant date actually lies in
the future — 2054, to be exact.
When the 1,000th anniversary of the East-West rupture rolls around 40
years from now, the question is whether there will still be an
ecumenical patriarchate in Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul in
Turkey, to mark it.
There’s every possibility that in the meantime, the historic “first
among equals” in the Orthodox world will become another chapter of the
slow-motion extinction of Christianity across the land of its birth.
Turkey may be officially secular, but sociologically it’s an Islamic
society with a population of 75 million that’s 97 percent Muslim.
Although it was a center of early Christianity, today there are just
150,000 Christians left, mostly Greek and Armenian Orthodox. They
endure various forms of harassment, including difficulties in
obtaining permits to build or repair churches, surveillance by
security agencies, unfair judicial treatment, and discrimination in
housing and employment.
The Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary is an emblematic case. Founded in
1844 as the principal school of theology for the ecumenical
patriarchate, it was considered one of the premier centers of learning
in the Orthodox world. It was forced to shut down in 1971 after Turkey
barred private universities.
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National law also requires the patriarch of Constantinople to be a
Turkish citizen. Given the dwindling Christian community and the
inability to provide theological formation, many believe it will be
increasingly difficult to find suitable clergy to satisfy the
requirement, and that eventually the office could lapse for lack of a
qualified candidate.
Toward the end of 2009, the normally reserved and diplomatic
Bartholomew appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and shocked Turkey’s
political establishment by saying out loud that Turkey’s Christians
are second-class citizens and that he felt “crucified” by a state that
wants to see his church die out.
That’s not just rhetoric, as physical attacks on Christians in Turkey
have become increasingly common and brazen over the last decade.
In January 2006, a Protestant church leader named Kamil Kiroglu, a
Muslim convert, was beaten unconscious by five young men. A month
later, a well-known Italian Catholic priest, the Rev. Andrea Santoro,
was gunned down by a 16-year-old Muslim in Trabzon. Three other
Catholic priests were attacked shortly afterward in other locations.
In January 2007, a prominent Christian journalist of Armenian descent
named Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul. In April 2007, three
Protestant Christian missionaries — two Turks and one German — were
tortured, stabbed, and strangled in the Central Anatolian city of
Malatya.
In June 2010, Luigi Padovese, the Catholic apostolic vicar for
Anatolia and president of the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference,
was killed by his driver and longtime aide, Murat Altun. Witnesses
reported that Altun shouted “Allahu Akbar, I have killed the greatest
Satan!”
These travails mirror the broader realities for Christianity across
the Middle East. All told, Christians have gone from roughly 20
percent of the region’s population in the early 20th century to no
more than 5 percent today.
Those who remain often face lethal threats. A coalition of more than
200 Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant leaders in America recently
urged greater action by the US government to protect Middle Eastern
Christians, an initiative spearheaded by Representative Frank Wolf, a
Virginia Republican, and Representative Anna Eshoo, a California
Democrat.
Therein lies the test for Pope Francis on his first outing to the region.
The question is not really whether he can contribute to ecumenical
momentum, as his predecessors on both sides of the Catholic-Orthodox
divide made that process irreversible, and his own humbler conception
of the papacy is already accelerating the healing.
The real question is instead whether he can translate his popularity
and moral authority into an effective mobilization in defense of
persecuted Christians, not as a matter of confessional self-interest
but as an urgent human rights concern.
Two year ago, a leading columnist for the Turkish daily Zaman
complained that the Vatican wasn’t doing anything to demand that the
investigation of Padovese’s death be “handled in a serious manner.” He
wrote that if the Vatican would do so, it would offer “a huge
contribution to the promotion of human rights and freedom of
religion.”
Will a similar critique of Vatican silence be possible on Francis’s
watch? Or will the world’s most popular spiritual leader spend some of
his political capital on behalf of fellow believers, most of whom are
impoverished and vulnerable, for whom he may be the last firebreak
before annihilation?
Without trying to guess the answer, that’s at least the right question
to ask when Pope Francis meets the patriarch during his May 24 to 26
outing to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.
Beatifying Pope Paul VI
Having already made saints of two of his predecessors, Popes John
XXIII and John Paul II, Francis is set to move ahead with the
sainthood cause of yet another former pontiff. On Saturday the Vatican
announced that a miracle has been approved for Pope Paul VI, who
reigned from 1963 to 1978, and that the Italian pope would be
beatified, the final step before sainthood, on Oct. 19.
The miracle comes from the United States, and reportedly involves the
healing of an unborn child whom doctors had diagnosed with a severe
risk of brain damage. They recommended abortion. The mother instead
prayed for Paul’s help, clutching a fragment of the pontiff’s garments
given to her by a friend, and the child was eventually born safely
after a caesarean section.
The beatification ceremony will take place on the closing day of a
Synod of Bishops set for October in Rome, devoted to discussion of
issues involving the family.
Four points about the beatification of Paul VI are worth drawing out.
First, Giovanni Battista Montini, the given name of Paul VI, may be
the modern pope whom Francis most closely resembles. Both were men of
governance: Montini, a veteran of Vatican service, and Jorge Mario
Bergoglio, a former Jesuit superior and then archbishop of Buenos
Aires. Like Francis, Montini tried to reconcile the church’s
progressive and traditionalist wings. Just like today, under Paul VI,
it was the hard-liners on either end of the spectrum who were out of
favor and the moderates who seemed to get the plumb jobs.
In another parallel with Francis, Paul VI launched an ambitious
program of Vatican reform, designed to make the Vatican more
international, more efficient, and more collegial, meaning more
disposed to consult rather than to impose, and more driven by a spirit
of service to local churches around the world. It’s a somewhat
ambivalent precedent, because most observers would say Paul’s reform
was only partially successful, and it remains to be seen whether
Francis can finish the job.
Second, the beatification of Paul VI is another confirmation by
Francis of his commitment to Vatican II (1962-65), the reforming
assembly of bishops that set Catholicism on a path of openness to the
wider world. John XXIII was the father of the council and John Paul II
its great apostle; Paul VI was the pope who brought it in for a safe
landing and kept the church together in its turbulent aftermath.
Third, this beatification ought to lay to rest any lingering doubt as
to whether Francis truly is a “pro-life” pope. Not only was Paul VI
the pontiff who gave the world the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae,
reiterating the church’s ban on birth control, but the miracle
clearing his path to the altar involves the healing of an unborn child
and a mother who refused an abortion.
Fourth, staging the ceremony in conjunction with the Synod of Bishops
is another indication of how important that institution is to Francis
as an expression of collegiality, meaning the determination to make
sure the voices of local bishops and other actors in the church are
heard in Rome. Paul VI founded the synod in 1965 and presided over its
first five meetings, and in some ways it’s the feature on the
contemporary Vatican landscape most associated with his reign.
Most observers would say that over the years, the synod has been a
mixed bag, sometimes functioning more as an expensive talk shop with
conclusions determined in advance than a genuine instrument of
consultation. Nonetheless, the idea of the synod clearly is key to
Francis, who has repeatedly said that he wants to see a more “synodal”
church.
(A Greek term, “synod” means, roughly, a journey “on the same path,”
and refers to cooperation among layers of authority. In Eastern
churches, a synod of bishops generally makes decisions in tandem with
the presiding patriarch.)
Francis has significantly overhauled the process for the Synod of
Bishops this time around, and so part of the drama of 2014 will be to
see whether the reality under Francis more closely resembles the
vision laid out almost 50 years ago by Paul VI.
A new Vatican scam
The discipline of Vaticanology is not exactly noted for its real-world
applications, but it would at least have inoculated anyone who’s up to
date against a scam going around Rome that apparently took advantage
of at least a dozen young Italians desperate for work.
Italy has a youth unemployment rate estimated at 42 percent, the
highest since 1977. Young Italians and their families are eager to
pursue any opening, especially something that seems secure, and the
Vatican strikes many as the brass ring. I can testify that anytime an
Italian realizes you’ve got some sort of tie to the Vatican, however
tenuous, requests to make an introduction for their child, or their
cousin or nephew, usually aren’t far behind.
In that context, a group of con artists apparently passed itself off
recently as a consulting firm working for the Vatican, offering young
people the chance to interview for Vatican employment, for a fee, and
then extending them a work contract for another payment. Naturally,
the jobs never materialized, but the scammers moved on before the
victim realized what had happened.
The ruse has a certain surface plausibility, given that the Vatican
under Pope Francis has hired a slew of outside consultants —
Promontory, Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Company, and so on — for various
tasks. Perhaps for that reason, the Government of the Vatican City
State released a statement Thursday asking people to “distrust anyone
making these sorts of promises.”
“It’s distressing to see anyone trying to profit from the good faith
of many young people and their families, especially in this time of
crisis,” the statement said, inviting anyone who fell victim to the
scam to file a complaint with the Italian police and to copy the
Vatican authorities.
Here’s how Vaticanology could have helped: Anyone following the news
would have known that the secretary of state, Italian Cardinal Pietro
Parolin, imposed a hiring freeze on all Vatican departments in the
name of the pope back in late February, and it’s never been lifted. As
a result, the offers of employment had to be fake.
Vatican diplomats shed caution
The Vatican boasts the world’s oldest diplomatic corps, and its
members take their tradecraft extremely seriously. They pride
themselves on being the soul of discretion, never burning bridges,
never shutting down lines of communication, and always having the big
picture in view.
The result is that Vatican diplomats rarely engage in public
crossfire, so when they do, you know something extraordinary is going
on.
That’s relevant in light of the dust-up following an appearance Monday
and Tuesday by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s envoy to the
United Nations in Geneva, before the UN’s Committee against Torture.
As happened earlier this year in a date with the UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child, the Vatican’s record on the child sexual abuse
scandals once again was put under a microscope.
Even before the hearing, Tomasi had come out swinging in an interview
with the Globe in which he complained that some people seem
deliberately “deaf and blind” to the progress the Catholic Church has
made in the fight against child sexual abuse.
Now, Tomasi and the Vatican are pushing back again, following an
exchange during the hearing in which one of the UN experts, Felice
Gaer of the American Jewish Committee, who also serves on the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom, pressed Tomasi on
whether rape and sexual abuse should be considered forms of torture.
It’s a debated point among experts on international law. Some contend
that “torture” applies only to acts committed by, or with the explicit
consent of, governments and public officials, while others support a
more expansive interpretation to include acts by private individuals.
In brief, Tomasi replied that “I’m not a lawyer,” adding that it’s
important the definition of torture adopted by the UN panel be
consistent with the terms of the 1984 Convention against Torture.
Media outlets quoted Gaer after the session as saying that she
considered the reply an admission by the Vatican that rape and sexual
abuse fall under the terms of the treaty.
On Friday, the Vatican’s Geneva office released a press statement
vigorously disputing that notion, insisting that Tomasi was not
offering a legal opinion. It also dispatched a letter to the head of
the Committee against Torture warning that if the record isn’t set
straight, the perception will be that members of the panel are “biased
and driven by personal motivations.”
The Vatican-friendly Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, based in
Atlanta, also filed a brief Thursday asking that Gaer be excluded from
drafting the committee’s final report. It charges that Gaer wants to
push the expansive line on the “rape is torture” debate, making her
biased toward depicting the Vatican in the worst possible light.
If Gaer participates in the review, the brief warns, states such as
the Holy See “will have little choice” but to see these UN checkups as
“politically and policy-motivated ‘star chamber’ inquisitions designed
to elicit public statements . . . that one or more committee members
can spin to the media in the hope of shaping a predetermined outcome.”
The Committee against Torture is expected to release its final
conclusions this month, and given the fallout from the hearing, it
looks like the Vatican isn’t inclined to be bound by its usual caution
if it takes another shot on the chin.
It remains to be seen whether there will be long-term consequences to
these run-ins with the UN system, such as whether the Vatican will
become less likely to ratify future conventions out of fear that
hearings by monitoring bodies will become a regular occasion for
people to roll out their beefs with the church.
As a footnote, the Vatican provided comprehensive figures to the
Committee against Torture for the number of priests it has disciplined
over the past decade on abuse charges. In all, the Vatican said 848
priests have been expelled from the priesthood, while 2,572 more were
hit with lesser sanctions.
Those numbers include only cases handled by the Vatican, not church
courts at lower levels around the world, so the full number of
disciplined clergy is presumably much larger.
For a term of comparison, the Vatican’s official statistical yearbook
reported 412,236 priests worldwide in 2013.
A blueprint for papal travel
In between higher profile outings to the Middle East in May and South
Korea in August, Pope Francis will take a one-day trip to the southern
Italian diocese of Cassano all’Jonio on June 21.
It’s being humorously billed as the “I’m Sorry” visit, because Francis
recently made the popular bishop of the diocese, 65-year-old Nunzio
Galantino, secretary of the powerful Italian bishops’ conference,
which means he’s now splitting his time. The pope has said he wants to
apologize to the locals while he’s around.
Cassano all’Jonio is in Calabria, a chronically underdeveloped region
on the toe of the Italian peninsula that’s also a stronghold of the
‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate. A confidential US Treasury report in 2008
described Calabria as a failed state. Its bishops tend to be social
justice-oriented pastors close to the people, and Galantino is a
classic example of the type.
Of all those who have hosted Francis since his election, Galantino may
be the prelate who’s mostly clearly intuited the kind of trip this
pontiff wants to make.
In public remarks after the June 21 outing was announced, Galantino
said both the diocese and local officials in Calabria should avoid
exploiting the trip as an excuse for “unjustified expenses.” Instead,
he called for preparations to be marked by a spirit of “sobriety” and
“attention to one’s neighbor,” especially the most needy.
Galantino advised against “spruce-up” projects involving “useless or
superfluous” outlays of money, especially if it’s for flourishes that
will vanish as soon as the pope leaves town. Instead, he said, if
money’s going to be spent, it ought to be used to build infrastructure
in poor areas, even if not’s a neighborhood the pope is planning to
visit.
Such development, Galantino said, would capture the real sense of the
pope’s visit.
Playing off Francis’s joking vow to apologize, Galantino said the trip
ought to prompt locals to ask forgiveness “for the poor left alone in
our streets, for the nonbelievers to whom we continue to propose our
religion without asking if it means something to them too, to our
youth for whom we’ve abdicated being credible role models, to our
young adults when we’ve done nothing to sustain their dreams, and to
our territory reduced solely to a place to exploit.”
In effect, Galantino seems determined to lay out both a tone and a
program ideally suited to the way Francis prefers to travel. Future
hosts of papal visits, take note.
John L. Allen Jr. is a Globe associate editor, covering global Catholicism.
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