APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO TURKEY

HOORAY FOR PAPA!!!

What a tremendously successful trip he had! He looks so cute descending the steps from the Turkish plane with that little smile on his face. He's such doll! But I digress.



I was just looking through stories from some of the major news media for their wrap-ups of his trip. The Turkish and European media are very complimentary and almost effusive about what Papa said and how he behaved and what effect he had on everyone. The American media unfortunately (TIME, Newsweek, New York Times, etc.) still can't recognize what is right in front of their faces or don't want to. They are being snide and supercilious, downplaying everything positive. Al-jazeera would probably be more pro-Papa. I guess it is a case of the super-secular, anti-religion media feeling threatened by our very wise, capable, and holy little Papa, a majority of one.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/12/2006 1.20]

Turkey trip 'defines Benedict papacy'

Pope Benedict has returned to Rome at the end of his first visit to a predominantly Muslim country having apparently successfully defused criticism that he views the Islamic faith as "violent".
The BBC's Rome correspondent, David Willey, who followed the Pope's journey to Turkey, reflects on an historic week.


The 79-year-old Pope scored a considerable diplomatic success.
Popes usually go down in history more for what they do than for what they say.

The reign of the 16th-Century Pope Sixtus V is still remembered for his architectural transformations of the city of Rome.

Pope John XXIII is remembered for having called the Second Vatican Council. And Pope John Paul II is remembered as the most travelled Pope in history.

In Istanbul, we have, I believe, witnessed some defining moments of the papacy of Benedict XVI.

He reached out to Muslims by praying facing towards Mecca in a famous mosque.

And he reached out to Orthodox Christians, seeking to heal a rift that has lasted more than 1,000 years by holding joint services and giving a joint blessing to their faithful by the side of Patriarch Bartholomew, their spiritual leader, on the holiest day in their church calendar.

Bold gesture

Pope Benedict followed up on promises he had previously made at the Vatican with some very striking and eloquent gestures.

The Pope won the praise of Turkey's former religious affairs director Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz for facing Mecca when he prayed in silence inside Istanbul's Blue Mosque.

The visit to the mosque, an extra stop inserted in the Pope's programme only at the last minute, appears to have gone down extremely well with his hosts.

It was a bold gesture, considering that this was only the second time in the history of the papacy that a pope from Rome has entered a Muslim place of worship.

I was also present when the late Pope John Paul II broke with precedent by entering the great Umayyad mosque of Damascus during his visit to Syria five years ago.

But that occasion was more a courtesy visit than an opportunity for deep prayer.

Benedict closed his eyes and moved his lips in prayer for what seemed like two very long minutes after being shown around this famous gem of 17th-Century Ottoman architecture.

It is known as the Blue Mosque because of the intricately patterned and coloured tiles which decorate part of the interior of the building.

The moment was "even more meaningful than an apology" for the Pope's much criticised remarks about the Prophet Muhammad in September, said the Mufti of Istanbul, Mustafa Cagrici, the Pope's guide during the visit.

Protocol call

The religious and historical symbolism of the Pope's journey to Istanbul has been striking.

Turkey's former capital city straddles the narrow waterway dividing Europe from Asia.

One of its dominant monuments is the broad-domed former Christian church of Hagia Sophia, built by the Roman Emperor Justinian 1,500 years ago.

For centuries this was the largest church in the world. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Hagia Sophia became a mosque; now it is a museum.

The Pope therefore had to respect the secular nature of this former holy place, which still contains a mosaic more than 1,000 years old depicting a Byzantine Emperor prostrating himself before a seated figure of Christ.

Yet a prayer here would have been considered out of place.

It would have offended his hosts, the government of the secular Turkish state.

Benedict respected protocol. But 10 minutes later, under the glare of television lights, he was praying at the side of an imam inside the Blue Mosque, only 500 metres (yards) away from Hagia Sophia.

European unity

Whether Pope Benedict's visit has brought Turkey any nearer to full membership of the EU remains a moot point.

Certainly Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the most of a private remark to him by the Pope, when the pontiff stepped off his plane in Ankara, to the effect that he welcomed the negotiations now going on in Brussels.

This was interpreted by Mr Erdogan as full papal support for Turkey, and duly reported as such in the local press.

But a Vatican official later put a perhaps more realistic spin on the Pope's remarks.

He pointed out that the Vatican - which incidentally is not a member of the EU - normally takes no stand on purely political issues, while supporting the basic ideals and goals of European unity because of the continent's common Christian roots and traditions.

Oh God our Heavenly Father, giver of all life, we wish to praise you for all the gifts you have given to your people on Earth. Thank you for giving us the very special gift of our Beloved Papa Benedetto who is so inspiring, enlightening and loving because You are the source of that inspiration, light and love. We acknowledge and thank you for Your Holy Spirit that guided his steps, guided those around him, opened the minds and hearts of all on his voyage to Turkey. Above all we wish to thank you for seeing fit to return Papa Benedetto safely back to Rome. In Christ we pray, Amen.

Dear Benefan...Now that I am forewarned, I can't say I can't wait to see the American media wrap-ups, but I am surprised that Jeff Israely has turned a little iffy in his last 2-3 times out. The first time, I attributed it to his co-writer David Biema, but the following article was under his single byline and....I'd look out for LA Times and Chicago Tribune, which seemed to have a positive view in their coverage pieces.

BTW, did you ever find that WCJ two-page article about Papino that Magister mentioned? As I told you, it was not at all in the 11/27 issue which he cited, unless WSJ has a European edition.

Re the BBC story: Considerable change of tone for the BBC, which from what I read of their online stories, appears to have covered the trip quite fairly. Now, if they could only apply that fairness to their documentary and public affairs division as well so they can rectify that horrible hatchet job they did rcently!

P.S. NAN...THANK YOU FOR THE BEAUTIFUL PRAYER! AMEN!

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Just picked this up from Gerald Augustinus on his blog -
Milliyet is, of course, one of the Turkish newspapers that hailed the Pope's visit to the Blue Mosque. It has immortalized that moment of prayer on its front page, but what surprised me is that it uses two other pictures connected with the Pope's visitbut the ecumenical part of it - showing the Pope with Bartholomew I and with the Armenian Patriarch! I wonder, would they ever have carried the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Armenian Patriarch on the front page before this?

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I would have wanted to bring Avvenire's coverage of the trip to this thread on a regular basis, it's just that because of time considerations - promptness, primarily - and the spate of stories available in the Anglophone press to post, I could only find time to translate stuff which was not in the English items during the visit itself.

Also, the Avvenire feature which enables one to look at their pages one by one on PDF was not downloading properly the past two days, so I could not even show the images as I do with today's issue.

His Lips Moved
from INSIDE THE VATICAN
- by Dr. Robert Moynihan: Istanbul, Turkey - Day 5

November 30, 2006

The whole question of prayer and adoration is a mysterious one. How should men and women worship? Who is worthy of worship, and why? How should men and women pray, and when, and where... and why?

Today here in Istanbul, in a remarkable way, these questions were highlighted - if not answered - by two very different moments of Pope Benedict XVI’s historic trip to Turkey.

The first "moment" was the solemn, majestic, three-hour Orthodox liturgy (a Mass according to the ancient Byzantine rite) filled with solemn chants and gestures.

Benedict attended the liturgy this morning at the Orthodox Patriarchal Cathedral of St George in the Phanar district of Istanbul for the Feast of St. Andrew, which falls on November 30 - the same place where he prayed together with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew yesterday evening.

What was the "essence" of this "moment"? One explanation is given beautifully in the missal book that was given out to those who attended the historic liturgy.

"The Divine Liturgy is indeed a recurrence of the salvific sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ," the introduction of the booklet used for the liturgy says. (As I was reading this booklet, which Father Alexander Karloutsos, an American Greek Orthodox priest gave to me not long before the pope arrived, my old colleague Delia Gallagher, who is now CNN’s Faith and Values correspondent, noticed me from the balcony, and joined me just next to Patriarch Bartholomew, who had come out to the vestibule of the church to await the pope.)

"The believer participates truly in the Divine Liturgy when he is put on the Cross with Him and when he is raised with Him; Him who wants the salvation of everybody and who desires everyone to come to the realization of the truth... Therefore, the person who does not desire, out of love unto death the salvation of all his fellow people, just and unjust, good and wicked, faithful and unfaithful, honest and dishonest, always in repentance of course, cannot identify himself, or herself, with the spirit of Christ."

So the essence of the first "moment" of worship for the pope today was Christ himself.

The second "moment" truly was just a moment. It lasted only a few seconds, and occurred in complete silence. It occurred during Benedict’s visit to the famed "Blue Mosque" of Istanbul, renowned throughout the world for its grandeur and beauty.

And, though the first moment was historic for Catholic-Orthodox relations, it was the second which may go down in history as one of the most significant of Benedict’s pontificate.

And this shows that, in such matters, external, visible signs may be of less importance than the moment’s inner meaning. For the inner meaning of a thing is something that cannot be seen or heard, but only understood with the mind, or heart (or perhaps half-understood).

At the entrance of the mosque, Benedict took off his shoes, as is the custom. And he walked forward into the great expanse in his stocking feet, wearing his golden pectoral cross in full view over his white cassock. (It was the second time a pope had entered a Muslim place of worship; Pope John Paul II visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria, in 2001.)

Beside Benedict was Mustafa Cagrici, the grand mufti of Istanbul. He was Benedict’s guide, explaining to him the history and architecture of the mosque, built by Sultan Ahmet I in the early 1600s.

When the two reached the "mihrab" niche that points the way toward Mecca, the mufti turned to Benedict and said he was going to pray. (Whether the Pope knew in advance that the mufti was going to do this, is not clear.)

"In this space everyone stops to pray for 30 seconds, to gain serenity," the mufti said.

And then the mufti closed his eyes and began to pray.

The pope stood alongside him, bowed his head and, for a moment, waited, silent, motionless.

And then he began to move his lips, just a bit.

Silently.

There was no sound, no words spoken audibly.

"It was an unforgettable moment," my colleague, Serena Sartini, an Italian journalist from Florence who writes for Inside the Vatican and was standing a few feet from the Pope as he prayed, told me this evening as we ate dinner together. "There was no sound at all, just the sound of all the camera shutters - click, click, click, echoing through the stillness. I’ve never heard anything like it."

Benedict’s moving lips were captured by television cameras and transmitted by satellite instantaneously around the world, to the ends of the earth.

For this moment, Benedict was not teaching, or explicating, or lecturing. He was not debating historical events and their meaning. He was not the "German professor," the "professor pope."

He was "the pope of prayer."

But he was praying in a very unusual place, for a pope: in a Muslim mosque. One of the leading Muslim mosques in the world. And mosques are places dedicated to Allah, not to the Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Was this right?

Perhaps the Pope was not really "praying" at all? Perhaps he was just "meditating"? Was this possible?

No, because when the two men continued on their way (as Serena, who was there and could hear everything, related to me), the pope said to the mufti, "Thank you for this moment of prayer." There seems no doubt, then, that Benedict was indeed praying.

The Pope’s spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, was asked about this later by journalists. Was it really a prayer?

At first Lombardi seemed to hesitate, saying "the pope paused in meditation, and certainly he turned his thoughts to God."

Then he said that this could be called a moment of personal prayer, but one which did not include any of the exterior signs of Christian prayer, like a sign of the cross. In this way, Lombardi said, the pope underlined what unites Christians and Muslims, rather than any differences.

"In this sense it was a personal, intimate prayer to God," Father Lombardi said, which "can easily be expressed with his mind and with his thoughts also in a mosque, where many people cultivate the same spiritual attitude."

The essence of this argument would seem to be that the pope - or any Christian - may pray to God anywhere, not just in a Christian church, but even outdoors, even in a prison cell, even in a non- Christian place of worship, like a mosque.

Why would Benedict do this, and risk scandalizing some Christians, who may feel it was wrong of him to pray in a building specifically not dedicated to the triune God of Christian faith?

The answer seems to lie, in part, in Benedict’s somber, realistic evaluation of the present threat of war and socio-political conflict for the whole human family in this "globalized" world, and the consequent urgent need for human beings to find a way to live in peace together, so that our children and their children may not inherit a world of blood and iron ruined by war and its consequences.

Some analysts are beginning to argue that the threat Benedict opposes is more modern secularism than Islam. That is, Benedict opposes a society with no religious faith at all, no sense of the transcendent, the holy, more even than a society with a very different religious faith and law, if that society still has a profound sense of the holy and the transcendent. (Recall that much of Benedict’s September 12 Regensburg talk was a call to the secularized West to return to a religious faith and a conception of the transcendent that it has abandoned over the past two or three centuries.)

"Benedict opposes secularism because it is both absolute and arbitrary," Philip Blond of St. Martin’s College, Lancaster, England, wrote recently. "Thus does the pope attribute the failure of Europe's common political project to the growing secularization of European culture... Thus Benedict's true purpose in Turkey is that of uniting all the monotheistic faiths against a militant and self-consciously destructive secular culture... Far from being anti-Muslim, the pope views Islam as a key cultural ally against the enlightenment liberalism that for him corrodes the moral core of Western society."

If this is so, it would explain a great deal.

It would explain why Benedict is reaching out to the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, but also to all the other Orthodox Churches (and, in a very special way, to the Russian Orthodox, the most numerous of all the Orthodox Churches, even though there are rivalries between Constantinople and Moscow, the "second Rome" and the "third Rome").

And it would explain why he prayed in the mosque, after asking the Islamic world in September to reject violence.

At the end of the visit, the pope presented the mufti with a framed mosaic of doves.

"This picture is a message of brotherhood in the memory of a visit that I will surely never forget," Pope Benedict said.

And so it was that November 30, 2006, the very day Pope Benedict prayed in the morning with Patriarch Bartholomew for Christian unity after one thousand years of division, also was the day when Pope Benedict moved his lips in a private prayer, for an intention known only to himself -- and in so doing overturned the image created of him in the Muslim world during the past few weeks.

From the pope of the "Regensburg insult" (though certainly Benedict intended no insult), Benedict had become the pope of the "Istanbul prayer."

Of such significance may be a few words, even when not spoken aloud. Of such significance may be a prayer, even when it is only for a few seconds.

Moments before entering the Blue Mosque, Pope Benedict had visited the Hagia Sophia Museum, an architectural masterpiece I myself was able to visit the previous morning.

The Hagia Sophia ("Hagia" means "holy" in Greek, and "Sophia" means "wisdom," so "the Church of Holy Wisdom"), was converted to a mosque in the 15th century after the conquest of Constantinople. After the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire fell and Turkey became a secular state, it was turned into a museum, and remains a museum today, with no religious ceremonies whatsoever.

Before leaving, he stopped to write in the museum's guest book.

"In our diversity, we find ourselves before faith in the one God. May God enlighten us and help us find the path of love and peace," he wrote.

And so on St. Andrew’s Feast Day, the pope visited three great religious shrines in the pace of a single day: (1) the Cathedral of St. George, where he was present at the celebration of an Orthodox Christian Mass; (2) the Hagia Sophia, once the greatest cathedral of Christendom, later, and for almost 500 years, one of the leading mosques in the world, but now a museum, where he did not pray at all; and (3) the Blue Mosque, one of the glories of Islam, where his lips moved silently in an unknown prayer.

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Dear Benefan or any of you who can get the rest of this story in the New York Times...it doesn't sound very promising, but still, let's have it here for the record...

Pope Prays in Turkey With Muslim and Orthodox Leaders
By IAN FISHER
Published: December 1, 2006
Pope Benedict showed that many of his basic concerns about the relationship between Christianity and Islam, as well as between West and East, had not vanished.



MAKLARA - Thanks for providing the Moynihan story. It will be worth getting his reports on all the previous days, as well. He did a similar daily journal before the last Conclave, and he had a lot of interesting little bits and pieces to say that do not usually appear in regular news reports.

From today's Avvenire, then, here is a translation of two eyewitness accounts of the Holy Father's visit to the Blue Mosque yesterday. The first is the report of the Avvenire correspondent who covered the event, and the second, an interview with a La Stampa editorial writer and religious scholar who covered the Papal trip.

In the Blue Mosque
for peace
By Luigi Geninazzi

"Holiness, it is not necessary to take off your shoes." the Imam sounded embarrassed as he watched Benedict XVI stepping out of his shoes.

But the Pope did not wish to be an exception to the rule that one must enter a mosque unshod, so he walked the immense interior of the Blue Mosque in his stockinged feet. Although His pectoral Cross was in place as usual, and fully visible within this most revered of Istanbul mosques.

It was a step into history and the image symbol of this trip, an image that will always acccompany the Pontificate of Joseph Ratzinger, who yesterday evening chose to gather himself in a moment of prayer in a place holy to Muslims.

Accompanied by the Imam of the Blue Mosque and by the Grand Mufti of Istanbul, the Pope entered the Blue Mosque, the city's most important mosque - constructed in the 17th century to copy the structure and magnificence of St. Sophia, the ancient Christian basilica in front of which it was built.

The Pope walked with his guides across the vast interior reflecting the blue of the mosaic tiles of the dome and ceilings - giving it its popular name - as they showed him the precious ceramic art carpeting the walls.

Then they came to the mihrab, the niche oriented to Mecca that is obligatory in every mosque. They told him [I'm sure he knew it even if they did not tell him] that is customary to stop for a few moments to pray in an attitude of peace and serenity.

Then, unmoving, beside each other, the Grand Mufti said his prayer, while Benedict XVI closed his eyes, and with his arms clasped in front of him in a Muslim prayer attitude, his lips moved almost imperceptibly, and he stayed that way for longer than a minute.

"Before the mihrab, the Pope paused in meditation and certainly turned his thought to God," Vatican press director Fr. Federico Lombardi said later. "Beside the Grand Mufti, the Pope said an intimate personal prayer, which had no trace of whatever divides us (Islam and Christianity) but only that which unites. The Pope paused for a moment of reflection and silent personal meditation of God." *

The visit then proceeded in a cordial and friendly manner.

The Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Mustafa Cagrici, is one of the 38 scholars who signed the open letter to the Pope last October, in reply to his statements about Islam in his Regensburg lecture of September 12.

It was him who explained architectural details about the mosque to Benedict, telling him that its 2,600 meters of floor space could accommodate as many as 8,000 persons for prayers.

There was an atmosphere of great emotion that was almost palpable as the visit drew to an end with an exchange of gifts.

The Mufti gave the Pope a book of prayers with an image of a dove on its cover, and the Pope's gift to him was a mosaic showing doves drinking from a bowl.

The Mufti said: "As you will see, all the prayers begin with 'Allah is the name of God'."

The Pope put his hand on the cover of the book and said: "Let us pray for brotherhood and for all mankind."

He then expressed his thanks for being given the chance to make this vist which he said he "would certainly never forget." It ended up being an extraordinarily warm encounter.

The first time a Pope had entered a Muslim place of worship was in May 2001 when John Paul II visited the Grand Mosque of Damascus, in Syria.

But Benedict's gesture yesterday, against the background of bitter polemics that had preceded his visit to Turkey, acquired a unique and surprising significance.

The Grand Mufti of Istanbul was enthusiastic. "It has been a marvelous moment. Thank you, Holiness, for remembering us."

Many Turks watched the event live on television, as it was transmitted on many channels.

"I did not expect anything like this from this Pope," said one commentator.

Another one said: "We should all be very proud of what happened tonight. It is the best image that Turkey could show the world."

================================================================

* I really find it strange for Fr. Lombardi to have to 'defend' what the pope did [and for Dr. Moynihan, as in the preceding article, and other Catholic commentators to look for 'explanations' other than the simplest there is]! Especially since the Pope's action apparently pleased the Turks universally.

The simple fact is: Since God is everywhere, one can pray everywhere and anywhere - we were all taught that. Even in a place of worship used by other religion. Or especially so, because most places of worship have a feel of the sacred that invites one to pray automatically - not to the gods or idols of the place, but to one's own God.

The Pope who prayed in the Blue Mosque facing Mecca [don't forget Mecca is in the same 'East' which the priest symbolically faces in the Old Mass, ad orientem, and that the direction of Mecca is also the direction of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and Nazareth] is the same Pope who as Cardinal came out with 'Dominus Iesus' - he has not conceded an inch: in both cases, he did what comes naturally to him.

And to pray inside another faith's place of worship is not syncretism at all - it is simply respect for what the place represents, in this case, to more than a billion faithful around the world.

Someone commented before this trip that Muslims (and most everyone who has good sense) respect someone who does not show fear. They also respect someone who prays - and does not hesitate to do so inside one of their own temples.

Regensburg and its aftermath showed them the fearless Benedict. Istanbul showed them the essential Benedict, a man of God and a man of prayer.

================================================================

'A HISTORIC AND REVEALING MOMENT'
An interview conducted
by Lucia Bellaspiga


Both had their arms clasped on the breast, the Pope's cradling his pectoral Cross - the first Pope ever to enter the Blue Mosque of Istanbul. And both of them, Pope and Mufti, rapt in prayer.

This was the culminating event of Benedict XVI's visit yesterday to a temple of Allah, a moment that took almost everyone by surprise, even an "old lay journalist and believer" like Igor Man, editorial writer for La Stampa and scholar of religions.

It was a moment of deep emotion, born then and there, unforeseen. A long silence that perhaps summarized best the sense of the Pope's entire voyage to Turkey, would you say?
I was much struck by the sudden and rapid 'thaw' that took place between the Pope and the Mufti after that. Initially, the Pope was rather reserved, listening with educated interest to what the Mufti told him about the mosque, as to a tourist. A VIP, but nevertheless, a tourist.

And then, [in front of the mihrab], with his hand on his pectoral Cross, he abstracted himself, he had flown away, he became totally prayer. It was a long one, eliciting the attention of those who were there. Here were two very different men, each praying in his own way, in the same place and time.

A Pope standing before the mihrab, the niche oriented towards Mecca?
Benedict was looking nowhere and everywhere, he simply towered over everything. It was a stupendous scene. We watched a historic moment, to treasure forever.

I can say that this event revealed to us yet another new Ratzinger. We are discovering him little by little. It is said that Popes are best understood by how they pray, and I think this moment brought forth the true Benedict XVI.

I remember another Pope at prayer. John Paul II had invited me to the Vatican with my wife. We found him on his knees in the private chapel, wrapped in a current of enormous spirituality. Don Stanislao (Dziwisz) explained that under his knees, inside the kneeler, were hundreds of notes such as he was getting daily from people requesting his prayers. That is why, he said, his prayers never seem to end.

John Paul II entered a mosque in Damascus - the first Pope ever to do so...
But that was totally different. There was sort of a magical atmosphere from the very beginning, mystic maybe, bewildering, because Papa Wojtyla was a man who commanded the stage. I remember that his bent, already ill figure appeared to affect even the hardbitten Syrian establishment, and I saw tears in some.

But this Pope is 'low profile' [he uses the English term], he is humble he is 'casual' [again the English term], but that is his hallmark, and he earns his greatest successes through this simplicity.

I'd even say he is a post-modern Pope. Today I grasped what he is: he simply presented himself naturally, as he is, despite the burder of vulgar threats over his head. And here he is, responding with the Cross held in his hand, praying. Perhaps the real Ratzinger is essentially and existentially this man who can abstract himself to pray.

[All I can say is that Mr. Man must be so blase and hidebound if it had to take that moment in the Blue Mosque to tell him this about Ratzinger! Pretty hard to miss it otherwise - in everything he says and does! ]

But you knew him quite well, when he was a cardinal....
We lunched together a number of times, we would meet in the bookstores or in a coffee bar. He is a man of irony and humor, he jokes, very quick-witted....But he caught me by surprise and overwhelmed me today with this silent dialog with the Lord.

But he is also a very practical man, profoundly intelligent and cultured, who has no illusions. He knows that dialog is still a far prospect, but he has cosen to give the signal.

A Ukrainian asked me today what was the true meaning of this trip, and I replied that God likes to plant seeds, but who knows which seeds will grow? Now we are living at a frightening point in international relations, and Benedict XVI has sown a seed...

The Turkish people would have seen the Blue Mosque event on TV. They would have seen that simultaneous prayer.
Yes, but I would not build up my illusions. It definitely was a 'moment' - let us hope others will follow. This should be our nightly prayer - that God may liberate us from skepticism and that sooner or later this seed that has been planted will grow.

I read somewhere that to admit Turkey into the European Union would be like the USA joining the PLO or France in the Arab League - that's destructive skepticism.

Nor would I delude myself about the effects of the papal trip on the Turkish people. They are very proud and touchy about their specific identity, and I think they will not mind blowing up their chances with the EU over a small question like Cyprus. But...

But?
Today in that mosque, on their TV, they saw that we have not told them any lies, that this man from the Christian West truly came to their country as a pilgrim, with extreme dignity, even if it is 'low profile'.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/12/2006 2.43]

What a beautiful, heartfelt prayer from Nan farther up this thread. And what a shame that no one felt able to acknowledge it. I know how Nan has been feeling for the past few days; she 's been like a wound up spring and I've been the same.
Thank you, Nan, for the prayer. We can sigh and relax now - Papa is safely back in the Apostolic Palace and has come home triumphant from a very successful and holy pilgrimage!

LONG LIVE BENEDICT THE MAGNIFICENT!

Mary x

Now, sleep well tonight, dear Papino!

MARYJOS, AS I HAD ORIGINALLY SUGGESTED - OR RATHER EXPRESSED THE HOPE - THAT SOMEONE COULD WRITE A PRAYER TO EXPRESS...ETC...AT THE TIME I POSTED THE BULLETIN ON THE POPE'S FLIGHT LANDING IN CIAMPINO (POST 5045, BOTTOM OF PREVIOUS PAGE), I DID ACKNOWLEDGE RIGHT AWAY WHEN NAN POSTED THE PRAYER. (POST 5048 IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING HER POST).

Here's the article from the NY Times as requested:

Pope Prays in Turkey With Muslim and Orthodox Leaders
By IAN FISHER

ISTANBUL, Nov. 30 — Pope Benedict XVI, who spurred waves of anger among Muslims just two months ago, stood Thursday in silent prayer, facing Mecca, beside a Muslim prelate in one of the world’s most important mosques.

The image of two men in white — the 79-year-old pope and Mustafa Cagrici, the chief of religious affairs for Istanbul — under the ornate domes of the Blue Mosque sealed a trip in which Pope Benedict repeatedly underscored his desire to reconcile Christians and Muslims.

How much of that goal he achieved here is unclear, after the deep anger over a speech criticized as equating Islam with violence. But Mr. Cagrici proclaimed the start good, with Benedict becoming only the second pope in 2,000 years known to have visited a mosque.

“Spring will not arrive by a single swallow,” he told the pope. “But more swallows will arrive, and we’re going to enjoy spring in the world all together.”

The two men exchanged nearly identical gifts of paintings of doves as signs of peace, a coincidence that seemed to amuse the pope. In turn, he told Mr. Cagrici, “With the help of God, we must find the way of peace together, for the good of humanity.”

But even with the symbolism of the mosque visit and a more diplomatic style, Pope Benedict showed Thursday that many of his basic concerns about the relationship between Christianity and Islam, as well as between West and East, had not vanished.

Twice on Thursday, the last day of his visit to Turkey, he referred to the “Christian roots of Europe” — long one of his themes, and one that has provoked some anger as seeming to minimize the contributions of others who now live there, especially the growing Muslim population.

He went further in a joint declaration with Bartholomew, the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, of referring also to the Christian roots of Turkey — a historical fact, with the Byzantine church based here for more than a millennium, but a declaration that seemed to run the risk of offending his Muslim hosts.

On Thursday he again seemed to endorse Turkey’s entering the European Union — repeating the good-will gesture he made on Tuesday, his first day here — but he linked the step to a hope for specific progress in respecting the rights of minorities here. Turkey’s small population of Orthodox Christians complains of official harassment and bureaucratic obstacles that have prevented its members from operating freely.

Of the European Union, the pope wrote in his joint declaration with Patriarch Bartholomew, “Those engaged in this great project should not fail to take into consideration all aspects affecting the inalienable rights of the human person, especially religious freedom, a witness and guarantor of respect for all other freedoms.”

“In every step toward unification,” they wrote, “minorities must be protected, with their cultural traditions and the distinguishing features of their religion.”

Finally, he repeated a theme from the speech that caused the negative reaction in September in Regensburg, Germany, about his worry about violence in the cause of religion, though this time without mentioning any religion by name.

“Above all, we wish to affirm that killing innocent people in God’s name is an offense against him and against human dignity,” he and the patriarch wrote in their statement.

In all, the pope has seemed to toe a careful line of not backing down in substance — with the exception of cautiously blessing the progress of Turkey toward membership in the European Union — while presenting a more open, warmer face to an Islamic world that now deeply distrusts him.

The pope’s spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the September speech, however painful, had helped open a new vein of dialogue between Christians and Muslims. “Regensburg bore a positive fruit, in a certain sense,” he told reporters after the pope’s visit to the mosque.

Before Benedict’s visit, John Paul II became the first pope known to visit a mosque. It is usually reported that he did so first in Damascus in 2001, though a Jesuit priest active in interfaith dialogue said recently that the first such visit was actually in Senegal in 1992.

Benedict’s relations with Muslims were only one facet of the trip, and for the Vatican not the most important one in the long run. On Thursday, Benedict continued what he considered his main task here, to help heal the 1,000-year rift with the world’s 220 million Orthodox Christians.

For 40 years the two churches have been engaged in halting talks toward reuniting, and on Thursday the pope attended an Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and he and Bartholomew traded speeches that expressed hope for future negotiations toward unity.

Bartholomew is the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians, though not with the same power the pope holds over the world’s billion Catholics. The patriarch called the pope’s presence in Turkey part of the “unwavering journey toward the restoration of full communion among our churches,” which he said was God’s will and command.

“May it be so,” Bartholomew said.

Benedict’s twin goals of overcoming enmities, old and new, between Christians and Muslims and among Christians themselves, could not find a more apt or complicated stage than Istanbul, a fact that seemed particularly vivid in the final day before he travels back to Rome.

Here the dramas of two millenniums of conflict, distant but very real, play out perhaps as in no other place, endowing the pope’s visit with deep symbolic value — and presenting endless dangers for offense.

Before the pope visited the Blue Mosque, he toured Hagia Sophia, the present structure of which was built in the sixth century. It was the seat of the Byzantine church, which split from Roman Catholicism in 1054. After the Ottoman Turks defeated the Byzantines in 1453, the church was turned into a mosque. Ataturk, founder of the modern, secular Turkish state, turned it into a museum in 1935, making it neither Christian nor Muslim.

Hagia Sophia was closed to the general public during the pope’s tour, and quiet except for a handful of stray cats that scampered across the ancient marble. Many Turks were watching Benedict carefully to see if he would pray. Pope Paul VI got down on his knees when he visited in 1967. Though Pope Paul had permission, he outraged many Turks, who felt he was subtly claiming the building back for Christianity.

But Benedict played very much the tourist, merely nodding and asking questions as he stopped at an alcove that displayed the church’s split identity. Images of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child, in a ninth-century fresco, looked down from a dome to walls covered with Arabic calligraphy citing the names of God and the Prophet Muhammad.

After his tour the pope walked across the plaza — under the tightest security, with helicopters overhead and riot-equipped police officers with shields and tear gas — to the Blue Mosque, built in the early 17th century by Sultan Ahmed. The sultan’s goal was also part of the competition between religions, to prove that Muslims could outdo Christians, even in the majesty of their buildings.

Sabrina Tavernise and Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.
----------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Nan for the beautiful prayer she posted above. I'm sure there were millions around the globe who expressed the same sentiments today!

I didn't get to watch much of the programming during the trip but I did make sure I saw the visit to Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. I'm so glad I did. Standing there praying, Papa seemed so angelic, so serene. I hope that person who said before that the Pope had "hatred in his heart" could see plainly that this is a person full of love.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised that there are those who find the fact that the Pope prayed in the house of worship of another faith a huge scandal and something for which he is to be criticized. Oi! I'm not sure I could control my temper if anyone said that to me in my presence! It seems to me that if anyone's devotion to Jesus, orthodoxy and love for the Church should be unquestioned, it is our beloved Holy Father.
Thank you Lord for this inspiring and beautiful man of faith!

LILY - THANKS FOR POSTING THE ARTICLE...

I AGREE WITH YOU - HOW WEIRD THAT SOME CATHOLICS ARE LITERALLY BEING 'HOLIER THAN THE POPE' ABOUT PRAYING IN A MOSQUE. ANYONE CAN PRAY ANYWHERE!

As for Ian Fisher's article, it could have been worse, but how could it? What could he say that is negative about the trip?

Oh, he tried -
"How much of that goal (reconciling Christians amd Muslims) he achieved here is unclear, after the deep anger over a speech criticized as equating Islam with violence"
which was also a clever way of working Regensburg into his story - yet again, as if we needed to be reminded because it took place centuries ago!

Or -
"But even with the symbolism of the mosque visit and a more diplomatic style, Pope Benedict showed Thursday that many of his basic concerns about the relationship between Christianity and Islam, as well as between West and East, had not vanished."


Come on, Mr. Fisher, you really expected centuries-old concerns to vanish overnight because Benedict visited Turkey for four days? You must think he is the nearest thing to God, then!

And then, this absolutely illogical statement:
"Twice on Thursday, the last day of his visit to Turkey, he referred to the “Christian roots of Europe” — long one of his themes, and one that has provoked some anger as seeming to minimize the contributions of others who now live there, especially the growing Muslim population. "

Mr. Fisher, look at your reasoning closely. The Pope is talking about the Christian roots of Europe. How can doing that minimize in any way "the contributions of others...especially the growing Muslim population" when they had none to begin with?

The Muslims weren't there at the beginning, at the roots - so they had nothing to contribute to it. Oh certainly, they tried several times to get in but except for the intermittent rule they established in some parts of Spain, they were always turned back by arms (as they were in Spain eventually).

Their settlement in large numbers in Europe is a phenomenon of the past 30 years, and they have mostly chosen to live in enclaves and proudly say they do not wish to be assimilated into European society. What could they have contributed except exacerbation of social tensions, and how does that contribute to Europe constructively?

Anyway, the Pope's resounding success in Turkey surpassed anyone's expectations, even those who were sure in their hearts that this intelligent, God-fearing and humble man who has been endowed with the flame of the Holy Spirit, would always know the right thing to say and do at the right time.

It certainly gave the lie to all the portents of doom and gloom that most of the media had purveyed relentlessly in the weeks leading to this trip (the weeks since Regensburg, in short), and probably caused the fearmongers a lot of red faces.

It just goes to show that even the most 'creative' journalist cannot push his agenda (based on his personal opinions about the subject, obviously) in the face of facts that are self-evident to everyone.

But I'm ready to take on the next negative article if it comes!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/12/2006 0.13]

DEAR NAN

This should really be in "Chatter" but I wanted to acknowledge that perfectly beautiful prayer. Thank you.

There is another round-up on The Pope in Turkey on Anderson Cooper tonight, on CNN.

After an extremely busy week and long hours at work, I am SO looking forward to catching up with the Forum and actually SEEING Papa in Turkey! It's completely frustrating to have to wait and hope it's all recorded safely, and not be able to read all the news here.

So a heart-felt thank you to all who HAVE posted. I'm sure there must be a lot of people like me who depend on you to be able to catch up with all the news, photos - and prayers.

THANK YOU

Pope leaves Turkey
after successful trip
By BRIAN MURPHY
AP Religion Writer
Fri Dec 1

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Pope Benedict XVI was greeted in Turkey with a lecture on how the Christian West scorns Islam. He left Friday with Istanbul's chief Islamic cleric speaking lyrically of better days ahead between the faiths.

Few predicted how boldly — and with such apparent success — the pontiff would seek to remake his battered image in the Muslim world during four days of speeches, sermons and symbolic gestures that included an instantly famous moment of silent prayer in a mosque while facing Mecca.

"Istanbul is a bridge that unites sides," the pope said before ending his first papal trip to the Muslim world. "I hope that this dialogue continues."

Turkey's influential Milliyet newspaper bid the pope farewell with an optimistic headline: "The Istanbul Peace."

But it will require attention to sustain.

The pope left without laying out clear ideas on how to follow through with his promises for greater understanding and dialogue with Muslims. He also put some sensitive demands on the table: wider protections and rights for Christian minorities in the Muslim world, including Turkey's tiny communities whose roots go back to the apostles.

Originally, the trip was envisioned as a pilgrimage to reinforce Christian bonds and reach out to Turkey's remaining Christians, including Catholics estimated to number between 20,000 and 30,000. But after the pope gave a speech in September that angered many Muslims, it became a test of the Vatican's ability to mend ties with the Islamic world.

Muslims erupted in protest in response to the speech, in which Benedict quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

The pope later offered his regrets that his speech caused offense and stressed that the quotes did not reflect his personal opinion.

In Turkey, he carefully avoided anything that could be perceived as a slight against Islam. He said all religious leaders must "utterly refuse" to support violence. Even when a statement from al-Qaida in Iraq denounced the trip, the Vatican responded with a general rebuke of "violence in the name of God."

The pope's dramatic moment of silent prayer in Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque on Thursday capped a wide-ranging effort to win back Muslim sentiments, which included expressing support for Turkey's steps to become the first Muslim nation in the European Union.

The gestures were well-received among Turkish religious leaders and in the media.

Mustafa Cagrici, the head mufti in Istanbul, waxed poetic about "a spring ahead for this world" after praying alongside Benedict at the Blue Mosque. He said the pope "stood in prayer just like Muslims."

It marked only the second papal visit in history to a Muslim place of worship. John Paul II made a brief stop in a mosque in Syria in 2001.

Scenes from the pope's minute of prayer — eyes closed, hands clasped — appeared on the front page of nearly every newspaper in Turkey. "History written in Istanbul," wrote the Vatan newspaper.

The pope's visit also made the front pages of several Arab newspapers. The pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat ran a front-page picture of the pope praying in the Blue Mosque, with the headline, "The pope turns toward Mecca in prayer."

"He came here with humility, and for the pontiff that takes an act of courage," said the Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, a Greek Orthodox clergyman who set up meetings between the pope and the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

A member of the papal entourage put the visit in even more epic terms. Cardinal Roger Etchagaray compared the mosque visit to John Paul II's dramatic stop in 2000 at Israel's Western Wall, where he left a copy of his declaration asking God's forgiveness for sins against the Jews.

"Benedict did for the Muslims what John Paul did for the Jews," the cardinal told reporters.

Some in the Arab world, however, remained skeptical about whether the pope's visit would completely repair the damage caused by his speech in September.

"It relieves to some extent what he said before, but we're hoping to see more from him. For example, will he continue this tone when he returns to the Vatican?" said Fahmi Huweidi, an Egyptian commentator on Islamic affairs who has written columns in the Arab newspaper Al-Hayat sharply criticizing the pope's speech.

There were tense moments early on in the trip. Ali Bardakoglu, the top Muslim cleric in Turkey, sat across from Benedict on Tuesday and complained that claims about Islam's violent nature were feeding "a growing Islamophobia" in the West.

Days later, however, Bardakoglu called the visit "a very positive step."

Turkish authorities had mobilized their biggest security force in decades in preparation for the visit. Istanbul's police chief, Celalettin Cerrah, said more than 9,500 officers were on duty during the week. Helicopters buzzed over rooftops and minarets, while sharpshooters watched over every stretch of the papal route.

However, only several limited demonstrations were held during Benedict's visit.

Before he left Friday, Benedict sought to reaffirm his message of reconciliation during a Mass for members of Turkey's Roman Catholic community.

"You know well that the church wishes to impose nothing on anyone, and that she merely asks to live in freedom," he said. In the courtyard of the 160-year-old Holy Spirit Cathedral, the pope then released several white doves into the sky.

Associated Press Writer Victor L. Simpson contributed to this report.



Praise and fears
as Pope ends Turkish visit
John Hooper in Istanbul
Saturday December 2, 2006
The Guardian


Pope Benedict flew out of Turkey yesterday having convinced many - but by no means all - of his hosts of his desire for warm relations with the Muslim world.

Ending his first trip as Pope to a predominantly Muslim nation, Benedict made a last attempt to assuage fears of a pan-Christian conspiracy against Islam, saying the Vatican sought to "impose nothing on anyone".

His unprecedented gesture on Thursday, when he prayed in the Blue Mosque, elicited widespread praise. His guide, the grand mufti of Istanbul, Mustafa Cagrici, noted that the Pope had stood and faced Mecca as he did so, as a good Muslim would. "These were very nice gestures," he told a television interviewer.

The nationalist daily Milliyet carried a picture of the two men praying together under the headline The Peace of Istanbul.

But some commentators were dismayed by part of a declaration signed by the Pope and Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity. It said: "In Europe, while remaining open to other religions and to their cultural contributions, we must unite our efforts to preserve Christian roots, traditions and values."
[Come on, people! Preserving one's own does not necessarily mean keeping out others. Who else will preserve Christian culture if not Christians themselves?]

The Turkish Daily News headlined its report of the declaration: Pope Dashes Turks' Hopes for EU Support. On his arrival on Tuesday the pope had been quoted by the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as having backed Turkey's EU application. But the paper said his comments were "apparently exaggerated".

The Pope's journey through Turkey has been dominated by his efforts to repair the damage wrought three months ago when, in a lecture in Germany, he used a quotation in which Islam was condemned as evil and inhumane.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/12/2006 1.39]

Peter Visits Andrew –
And Prays at the Blue Mosque
For Benedict XVI, reconciliation between the Church of Rome
and the Eastern Churches is part and parcel of
the Church’s proclamation to non-Christians.
The symbol of the Hagia Sophia.

By Sandro Magister


ROMA, December 1, 2006 – On the feast of saint Andrew, Benedict XVI entered the Blue Mosque in Istanbul with the cross of Jesus clearly visible upon his chest. He paused before the mihrab facing Mecca, and prayed in silence beside the grand mufti, who murmured the opening words of the Qur’an: all this took place with the freedom and clarity marked out by his lecture in Regensburg.

But a no less symbolic gesture took place shortly before this, with the pope’s entrance into the Hagia Sophia, now a museum, previously a mosque, and before that the cathedral church of the patriarch of Constantinople, in the land where early Christianity flourished.

In the Hagia Sophia, Benedict XVI did not immerse himself in prayer; he did not repeat the gesture of Paul VI when he visited there in 1967. Surrounded and hemmed in at every moment, he was able only to admire – in the impressive architecture of the Hagia Sophia, in its Byzantine mosaics, and in its Qur’anic inscriptions – the magnificent and sorrowful image encapsulating the Christian East of yesterday and today.

First there was Greek civilization and then early Christianity, then Roman culture and then the Islam that conquered but did not erase what came before it, and finally the little flock surrounded by wolves that keeps the Christian faith alive in today’s Turkey.

It was to this little flock that Benedict XVI brought the comfort of Peter: and also to the Churches that do not recognize his primacy in the form it took on in the second millennium.

Because this was the true aim of the visit. Peter, visiting Andrew. The successor of the chief of the apostles embracing the successor of the other missionary apostle among the Greeks.

The “First” and the “Second” Rome in the persons of the pope and of the ecumenical patriarch, divided for centuries of schism but now determined to journey toward a new unity: it is a journey begun in 1964 with the embrace between Paul VI and Athenagoras, followed by the revocations of excommunication and by the documents of Vatican Council II, and most recently revived with the theological dialogues taking place on the theme of “counciliarity and authority” and with the meeting this November 30th between the pope and the patriarch.

Bartholomew I is the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. He has fewer than three thousand faithful with him in Turkey, but he is the royal gate through which Benedict XVI wants to reach Churches of the East as a whole, including the Church of the “Third Rome” that is Moscow.

But there’s more. The apostle Andrew – Benedict XVI recalled – “represents the meeting of primitive Christianity and Greek culture.” And what is this, if not the encounter between the Gospel and the Logos, which was at the heart of the lecture in Regensburg?

The dialogue “according to reason” between Christianity and the other religions, and Islam in the first place, is for Benedict XVI inseparably tied to the search for unity among Christians.

And dialogue with Islam “according to reason” demands that every link between faith and violence be severed. In his homilies and addresses in Turkey, pope Joseph Ratzinger incessantly called for religious freedom. He did this with repeated references to the martyrs – including those of today, like Fr. Andrea Santoro – who lost their lives for being peaceful witnesses to their Christian faith.

The Turkish political and religious leaders, who are highly anxious to be admitted to the European Union, now know much better than before that religious freedom is a requisite step for this admission. And also in this, Benedict XVI brought comfort to the non-Muslim minorities in Turkey.

[Magister then reprints the English text of the homily delivered by the Holy Father on the Feast of St. Andrew, posted in this thread yesterday, which Magister thinks is the 'best synthesis' of the Pope's repeated message about religious freedom when he was in Turkey.]

Pope Benedict, master of words, shows mastery of gestures in Turkey

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNS) -- During his four-day trip to Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI, known for his precise and incisive words, showed he was also a master of the spontaneous gesture.

While his scholarly words in a September lecture in Germany offended millions of Muslims, his prayer in an Istanbul mosque surprised and delighted many of them.

For papal watchers the contrast between the tones of his reference to Muslims and violence in Germany and his silent prayer in the Blue Mosque was not the only surprise. Pope Benedict was supposed to be the pope of strong words in contrast to Pope John Paul II, the pope of strong gestures.

The silent prayer facing Mecca, the site of Islam's holiest shrine, also seemed to be in contrast to the predictions of pundits who assured the world that Pope Benedict would be more challenging than conciliatory with the world's Muslim believers.

Retired French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a close aide to Pope John Paul and a member of Pope Benedict's entourage in Turkey, told reporters Dec. 1: "I would compare the visit of the pope to the mosque to the gesture of John Paul II at the Western Wall," the Jewish holy site in Jerusalem where Pope John Paul in 2000 deposited a prayer asking God's forgiveness for the ways Christians had mistreated the Jews.

Pope Benedict's prayer at the mosque and Pope John Paul's prayer in Jerusalem "are two very important symbolic moments," Cardinal Etchegaray said. "In both cases, we did not expect it."

Judging simply by what Pope Benedict had said were his objectives in visiting Turkey, the trip was a success.

Setting off from Rome at the beginning of the Nov. 28-Dec. 1 visit, the pope said the point of the trip was the contacts he would make and the friendship and respect they would demonstrate.

While the pope received a warm welcome from the moment he got off the plane in Ankara, Turkey's capital, any remaining hesitation on the part of the Turkish people melted when the pope prayed in the Istanbul mosque on his last night in the country.

From the beginning, the trip was planned as an occasion for the pope to pay his respects to Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. After a prayer service, two liturgies, private meetings and a lunch, the brotherhood the pope and patriarch publicly professed also appeared publicly demonstrated.

But given the tensions present before the trip with both the Turkish government and the country's Muslim majority, Pope Benedict's positive encounters with Muslims stole the headlines. Even the Turkish papers, initially lukewarm to the idea of a papal visit, were impressed.

The daily Hurriyet reported Dec. 1: "The pope, who earned sympathy with words in the spirit of an apology to Muslims, continued to surprise the world."

The paper, like much of the world, particularly was struck by his prayer alongside a Muslim cleric in the mosque.

Hurriyet reported the pope "turned toward Mecca and prayed like a Muslim."

The Dec. 1 English-language Turkish Daily News headline read: "The pope is winning hearts and minds."

And the article described the pope's visit as "a moment of reconciliation" with the country's majority Muslim population.

As he was setting off from Rome Nov. 28, the pope had told reporters traveling with him that they should not have exaggerated expectations of such a short trip.

"The value (of the trip) I would say is symbolic, the fruit of the encounters themselves, of encounters in friendship and respect."

When the trip was over Dec. 1, one would only have to look at photographs of the pope with government officials, Muslim representatives and leaders of the Orthodox churches to see that a connection was made.

After a 30-minute free-flowing discussion Nov. 28 with Ali Bardakoglu, the country's top Muslim official, the two appeared before reporters grasping both of each other's hands.

And after attending Patriarch Bartholomew's celebration of the Divine Liturgy at the Orthodox cathedral, the two blessed a small crowd together before the patriarch took the pope's hand and held it aloft as they waved.

Even some of the obligatory gifts given during the trip seemed to conspire to carry a positive message, particularly when they were coincidentally similar, as they were at the Blue Mosque.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, pointed out that doves -- the symbol of peace -- were the main feature on the blue tile Istanbul's grand mufti gave to the pope and on the mosaic Pope Benedict gave to the mufti.

And, before leaving Istanbul Dec. 1, the pope released four white doves from the courtyard of the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

Father Lombardi told reporters late Nov. 30, "It seems we've gone well beyond expectations."

Not only were there no confrontations with Muslims over what the pope said in Germany in September, but the Germany speech seemed to give way to a new look at "the theme of relations between Christians and Muslims with serenity and depth, seeking to make important clarifications on both sides," Father Lombardi said.

"With this visit, this particular act in the mosque, I think we have taken significant steps forward," he said.

Western Civ 101
Pope Benedict's seminar on fundamentals.

BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Friday, December 1, 2006 12:01 a.m.
Wall Street Journal Opinion

It is somehow appropriate that amid the confusions of the U.S. involvement with the sectarians of Iraq, Pope Benedict XVI, fresh from his own "engagement" with contemporary Islam at Regensburg, should come to Turkey, which has sought membership in the European Union for 20 years. The theologian Michael Novak said recently of Benedict, "His role is to represent Western civilization." I'd say Benedict is more than up to the task. What remains to discover is whether Western civilization is still up to it.

We have been in this spot before, and won.

When Stalin famously asked how many divisions the pope had, he assumed that the brute force of military power would be everywhere decisive. That belief led to a four-decade standoff between the Soviets' tank armies and NATO. Finally in the 1980s, John Paul II, the Polish pope, gave intellectual hope and heft to anticommunist dissidents. Ronald Reagan and his allies prevailed over Europe's marching pacifists and installed Pershing missile batteries in Europe. By decade's end, the long Cold War with communism was dissipating. The pope's engagement mattered.

One may assume that in some Himalayan redoubt, history's latest homicidal utopians, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, believe that coupling their ideology to Islamic suicide bombers--in New York, London or Baghdad--is more than a match for the will of a morally diminished West. Are they wrong?

Benedict XVI has written with force about a morally diminished Europe. So like his predecessor, this pope decided to engage in the greatest military and intellectual battle of our age.

We all know how a few months ago at the University of Regensburg, Benedict made himself a central player in the post-9/11 era by quoting the 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus. Not much noted at the time was Benedict's second quotation from Manuel II: "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably [emphasis added] is contrary to God's nature." Benedict's lecture at Regensburg mentioned "reason" and "rationality" repeatedly. He went so far as to claim that the "rapprochement" between Biblical faith and Greek philosophical inquiry (reason) was "of decisive importance" for world history. "This convergence," said Benedict, "created Europe and remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe."

Very simply, he is talking about and defending what we call "the West"--both the place and the classically liberal idea, which radical Islam wants to blow up. Just as John Paul championed the jailed or hiding dissidents behind the Iron Curtain, Benedict is seeking similar protections for persecuted Christian minorities--indeed all minorities--across the Islamic world. Starting in Turkey.

Arriving in Ankara, the pope immediately raised two ideas from the wellsprings of the West. He said on his first day that a just society requires freedom of religion and on behalf of Turkey's tiny Catholic community, he raised the issue of property rights.

One might say the pope's counteroffensive--in the Islamic world and in the West--is overdue. One might also say his chances of winning are a long shot. Benedict's appeals to Europe to rediscover strength inside its religious tradition comes at a difficult moment. He admitted as much in a book-length interview 10 years ago ("Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium"). It is Islamic belief, Cardinal Ratzinger said, that "the Western countries are no longer capable of preaching a message of morality, but have only know-how to offer the world. The Christian religion has abdicated."

Militant Islam is on the march, literally, with enormous moral self-confidence. By contrast the West, as Wilfred M. McClay, an historian at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, aptly described it recently, is in "an era of post-modern moral insouciance." With others, Benedict argues that this moral insouciance is the West's greatest vulnerability. This, too, ought to be part of "homeland security."

Every nation in Europe has a birth rate below replacement, opting for material well-being over the (relative) sacrifice of raising two or more children. (Of all industrialized nations, only the U.S. birth rate exceeds replacement.) Against this trend, Benedict has thrown what he's got: the traditional Western notion of finding strength in the union of reason and religious faith.

It has become a hard sell. If the Vatican opposes abortion or stem-cell research, the West's intellectual elites deem it unfit to participate in any imaginable public forum. In the U.S., Christian evangelicals are feared by many as a threat equal to Islamic extremists, and unfit to participate in our politics. The hottest "religion" subject in the West now is atheism in the person of Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion," who, Time magazine wrote this month, is "riding the crest of an atheist literary wave." Our obsessions seem to be off-subject.

I think the pope is right that the West is engaged in a decisive intellectual competition with the ideas of radical Islam. This won't end with the battle for Baghdad. Will scientific agnosticism defend the West against militant Islam? With what? In Europe, its intellectuals can barely mount an argued defense against internal threats. Externally, as in Afghanistan, they won't even fight.

Benedict XVI's evident intention is to engage the Islamic world, particularly its religious and political leaders, in an intense and long discussion of the religious, political and legal rights of their resident minorities, in other words, the Western tradition. The implications of this effort are obvious for achieving an acceptable modus vivendi with global Islam.

How many divisions does this pope have? Good question. At the moment, I'd say, not as many as the last time.

Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Fridays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.