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APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO TURKEY

Ultimo Aggiornamento: 15/11/2007 08:47
28/11/2006 21:12
 
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AND WE HAVE THE TEXTS...
From the Vatican Radio site.... Fr. Lombardi's right hand does not know what the left is doing, apparently!

Pope's Speech to President
of Turkey's Office of Religious Affairs

November 28, 2006
Ankara, Turkey



I am grateful for the opportunity to visit this land, so rich in history and culture, to admire its natural beauty, to witness for myself the creativity of the Turkish people, and to appreciate your ancient culture and long history, both civil and religious.

As soon as I arrived in Turkey, I was graciously received by the President of the Republic and the Government Representative. In greeting them, I was pleased to express my profound esteem for all the people of this great country and to pay my respects at the tomb of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

I now have the joy of meeting you, the President of the Religious Affairs Directorate. I offer you my sentiments of respect, in recognition of your great responsibilities, and I extend my greetings to all the religious leaders of Turkey, especially the Grand Muftis of Ankara and Istanbul. In your person, Mr President, I greet all the Muslims in Turkey with particular esteem and affectionate regard.

Your country is very dear to Christians: many of the earliest Church communities were founded here and grew to maturity, inspired by the preaching of the Apostles, particularly Saint Paul and Saint John. The tradition has come down to us that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, lived at Ephesus, in the home of the Apostle Saint John.

This noble land has also seen a remarkable flowering of Islamic civilization in the most diverse fields, including its literature and art, as well as its institutions.

There are so many Christian and Muslim monuments that bear witness to Turkey’s glorious past. You rightly take pride in these, preserving them for the admiration of the ever increasing number of visitors who flock here.

I have set out upon my visit to Turkey with the same sentiments as those expressed by my predecessor Blessed John XXIII, when he came here as Archbishop Giuseppe Roncalli, to fulfil the office of Papal Representative in Istanbul: “I am fond of the Turks, to whom the Lord has sent me … I love the Turks, I appreciate the natural qualities of these people who have their own place reserved in the march of civilization” (Journal of a Soul, pp. 228, 233-4).

For my own part, I also wish to highlight the qualities of the Turkish population. Here I make my own the words of my immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II of blessed memory, who said on the occasion of his visit in 1979: “I wonder if it is not urgent, precisely today when Christians and Muslims have entered a new period of history, to recognize and develop the spiritual bonds that unite us, in order to preserve and promote together, for the benefit of all men, ‘peace, liberty, social justice and moral values’” (Address to the Catholic Community in Ankara, 28 November 1979).

These questions have continued to present themselves throughout the intervening years; indeed, as I indicated at the very beginning of my Pontificate, they impel us to carry forward our dialogue as a sincere exchange between friends.

When I had the joy of meeting members of Muslim communities last year in Cologne, on the occasion of World Youth Day, I reiterated the need to approach our interreligious and intercultural dialogue with optimism and hope.

It cannot be reduced to an optional extra: on the contrary, it is “a vital necessity, on which in large measure our future depends” (Address to representatives of some Muslim Communities, Cologne, 20 August 2005).

Christians and Muslims, following their respective religions, point to the truth of the sacred character and dignity of the person. This is the basis of our mutual respect and esteem, this is the basis for cooperation in the service of peace between nations and peoples, the dearest wish of all believers and all people of good will.

For more than forty years, the teaching of the Second Vatican Council has inspired and guided the approach taken by the Holy See and by local Churches throughout the world to relations with the followers of other religions.

Following the Biblical tradition, the Council teaches that the entire human race shares a common origin and a common destiny: God, our Creator and the goal of our earthly pilgrimage.

Christians and Muslims belong to the family of those who believe in the one God and who, according to their respective traditions, trace their ancestry to Abraham (cf. Second Vatican Council, Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions Nostra Aetate 1, 3).

This human and spiritual unity in our origins and our destiny impels us to seek a common path as we play our part in the quest for fundamental values so characteristic of the people of our time.

As men and women of religion, we are challenged by the widespread longing for justice, development, solidarity, freedom, security, peace, defence of life, protection of the environment and of the resources of the earth. This is because we too, while respecting the legitimate autonomy of temporal affairs, have a specific contribution to offer in the search for proper solutions to these pressing questions.

Above all, we can offer a credible response to the question which emerges clearly from today’s society, even if it is often brushed aside, the question about the meaning and purpose of life, for each individual and for humanity as a whole. We are called to work together, so as to help society to open itself to the transcendent, giving Almighty God his rightful place.

The best way forward is via authentic dialogue between Christians and Muslims, based on truth and inspired by a sincere wish to know one another better, respecting differences and recognizing what we have in common. This will lead to an authentic respect for the responsible choices that each person makes, especially those pertaining to fundamental values and to personal religious convictions.

As an illustration of the fraternal respect with which Christians and Muslims can work together, I would like to quote some words addressed by Pope Gregory VII in 1076 to a Muslim prince in North Africa who had acted with great benevolence towards the Christians under his jurisdiction.

Pope Gregory spoke of the particular charity that Christians and Muslims owe to one another “because we believe in one God, albeit in a different manner, and because we praise him and worship him every day as the Creator and Ruler of the world.”

Freedom of religion, institutionally guaranteed and effectively respected in practice, both for individuals and communities, constitutes for all believers the necessary condition for their loyal contribution to the building up of society, in an attitude of authentic service, especially towards the most vulnerable and the poor.

Mr President, I should like to finish by praising the Almighty and merciful God for this happy occasion that brings us together in his name.

I pray that it may be a sign of our joint commitment to dialogue between Christians and Muslims, and an encouragement to persevere along that path, in respect and friendship.

May we come to know one another better, strengthening the bonds of affection between us in our common wish to live together in harmony, peace and mutual trust. As believers, we draw from our prayer the strength that is needed to overcome all traces of prejudice and to bear joint witness to our firm faith in God. May his blessing be ever upon us!


Pope's Speech to
Diplomatic Corps in Ankara

November 28, 2006
Ankara Turkey



Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I greet you with great joy, Ambassadors charged with the noble task of representing your countries to the Republic of Turkey, and assembled here in the Nunciature to meet the Successor of Peter. I am grateful to your Vice-Dean, the Ambassador of Lebanon, for the kind words which he has addressed to me.

I am pleased to reconfirm the appreciation that the Holy See has often expressed for the important duties that you perform, which today take on an increasingly global dimension.

In fact, while your mission calls you above all to protect and promote the legitimate interests of your respective nations, “the inevitable interdependence which today increasingly unites peoples of the world, invites diplomats to be, in a new and original way, promoters of understanding, international security and peace between nations” (John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps, Mexico, 29 June 1979).

I want to begin by calling to mind the memorable visits of my two predecessors in Turkey, Pope Paul VI in 1967 and Pope John Paul II in 1979.

Nor could I fail to mention Pope Benedict XV, the untiring promoter of peace during World War I, and Blessed John XXIII, the Pope known as the “friend of Turks”, who after his years as Apostolic Delegate in Turkey and Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Vicariate of Istanbul, left everyone with the memory of an attentive and loving pastor, particularly eager to meet and come to know the Turkish people, whose grateful guest he was!

I am therefore happy to be a guest of Turkey today, having come here as a friend and as an apostle of dialogue and peace.

More than forty years ago, the Second Vatican Council wrote that “Peace is more than the absence of war: it cannot be reduced to the maintenance of a balance of power between opposing forces … but it is the fruit of the right ordering of things with which the divine founder has invested human society and which must be brought about by humanity in its thirst for an ever more perfect reign of justice” (Gaudium et Spes, 78).

We have come to realize that true peace needs justice, to correct the economic imbalances and political disturbances which always give rise to tension and threaten every society.

The recent developments in terrorism and in certain regional conflicts have highlighted the need to respect the decisions of international institutions and also to support them, in particular by giving them effective means to prevent conflicts and to maintain neutral zones between belligerents, through the presence of peacekeeping forces.

All this, however, remains insufficient unless there is authentic dialogue, that is to say fruitful debate between the parties concerned, in order to arrive at lasting and acceptable political solutions, respectful of persons and peoples.

I am thinking most especially of the disturbing conflict in the Middle East, which shows no sign of abating and weighs heavily on the whole of international life; I am thinking of the risk of peripheral conflicts multiplying and terrorist actions spreading. I appreciate the efforts of numerous countries currently engaged in rebuilding peace in Lebanon, Turkey among them.

In your presence, Ambassadors, I appeal once more to the vigilance of the international community, that it not abandon its responsibilities, but make every effort to promote dialogue among all parties involved, which alone can guarantee respect for others, while safeguarding legitimate interests and rejecting recourse to violence.

As I wrote in my first World Day of Peace Message, “the truth of peace calls upon everyone to cultivate productive and sincere relationships; it encourages them to seek out and to follow the paths of forgiveness and reconciliation, to be transparent in their dealings with others, and to be faithful to their word” (1 January 2006, 6).

Turkey has always served as a bridge between East and West, between Asia and Europe, and as a crossroads of cultures and religions. During the last century, she acquired the means to become a great modern State, notably by the choice of a secular regime, with a clear distinction between civil society and religion, each of which was to be autonomous in its proper domain while respecting the sphere of the other.

The fact that the majority of the population of this country is Muslim is a significant element in the life of society, which the State cannot fail to take into account, yet the Turkish Constitution recognizes every citizen’s right to freedom of worship and freedom of conscience. The civil authorities of every democratic country are duty bound to guarantee the effective freedom of all believers and to permit them to organize freely the life of their religious communities.

Naturally it is my hope that believers, whichever religious community they belong to, will continue to benefit from these rights, since I am certain that religious liberty is a fundamental expression of human liberty and that the active presence of religions in society is a source of progress and enrichment for all.

This assumes, of course, that religions do not seek to exercise direct political power, as that is not their province, and it also assumes that they utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of religion.

In this regard, I appreciate the work of the Catholic community in Turkey, small in number but deeply committed to contributing all it can to the country’s development, notably by educating the young, and by building peace and harmony among all citizens.


As I have recently observed, “we are in great need of an authentic dialogue between religions and between cultures, capable of assisting us, in a spirit of fruitful co-operation, to overcome all the tensions together” (Address to the Ambassadors of Countries with a Muslim Majority, Castel Gandolfo, 25 September 2006).

This dialogue must enable different religions to come to know one another better and to respect one another, in order to work for the fulfilment of man’s noblest aspirations, in search of God and in search of happiness.

For my part, on the occasion of my visit to Turkey, I wish to reiterate my great esteem for Muslims, encouraging them to continue to work together, in mutual respect, to promote the dignity of every human being and the growth of a society where personal freedom and care for others provide peace and serenity for all.

In this way, religions will be able to play their part in responding to the numerous challenges currently facing our societies. Assuredly, recognition of the positive role of religions within the fabric of society can and must impel us to explore more deeply their knowledge of man and to respect his dignity, by placing him at the centre of political, economic, cultural and social activity.

Our world must come to realize that all people are linked by profound solidarity with one another, and they must be encouraged to assert their historical and cultural differences not for the sake of confrontation, but in order to foster mutual respect.

The Church, as you know, has received a spiritual mission from her Founder and therefore she has no intention of intervening directly in political or economic life. However, by virtue of her mission and her long experience of the history of societies and cultures, she wishes to make her voice heard in international debate, so that man’s fundamental dignity, especially that of the weakest, may always be honoured.

Given the recent development of the phenomenon of globalized communications, the Holy See looks to the international community to give a clearer lead by establishing rules for better control of economic development, regulating markets, and fostering regional accords between countries.

I have no doubt, Ladies and Gentlemen, that in your mission as diplomats you are eager to harmonize the particular interests of your country with the need to maintain good relations with other countries, and that in this way you can contribute significantly to the service of all.

The voice of the Church on the diplomatic scene is always characterized by the Gospel commitment to serve the cause of humanity, and I would be failing in this fundamental obligation if I did not remind you of the need always to place human dignity at the very heart of our concerns.

The world is experiencing an extraordinary development of science and technology, with almost immediate consequences for medicine, agriculture and food production, but also for the communication of knowledge; this process must not lack direction or a human point of reference, when it relates to birth, education, manner of life or work, of old age, or death.

It is necessary to re-position modern progress within the continuity of our human history and thus to guide it according to the plan written into our nature for the growth of humanity – a plan expressed by the words of the book of Genesis as follows: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it”
(1:28).

Finally, as my thoughts turn to the first Christian communities that sprang up in this land, and especially to the Apostle Paul who established several of them himself, allow me to quote from his Letter to the Galatians: “You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another” (5:13).

I sincerely hope that the good relations between nations, which it is your task to serve, may also contribute increasingly to the genuine growth of humanity, created in the image of God. Such a noble goal requires the contribution of all.

For this reason the Catholic Church intends to renew its co-operation with the Orthodox Church and I hope that my forthcoming meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I at the Phanar will effectively serve this objective.

As the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council emphasized, the Church seeks to cooperate with believers and leaders of all religions, and especially with Muslims, in order that together they may “preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values” (Nostra Aetate, 3).

I hope, from this viewpoint, that my journey to Turkey will bring abundant fruits.

Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen, upon you, upon your families and upon all your co-workers, I invoke with all my heart the Blessings of the Almighty.


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/11/2006 6.42]

28/11/2006 22:34
 
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WRAP-UP OF DAY ONE
Well, everything seemed to have gone well on Day One of this most apprehension-filled trip.

Benedict XVI - 1. Fear-mongers - zero.

Let it stay that way. One down, three to go.

When the Holy Father came down the plane this morning in his usual elegant way, radiant and smiling, it felt almost as emotional as when he walked through the gate of Auschwitz by himself. Indeed, Benedict has the courage and strength of legion because his heart is pure. I hope even Mr. Bardakoglu sensed that.


Here is AP's wrap-up story
:

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

Pope urges leaders
to renounce violence

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
Associated Press Writer




Pope Benedict meets the diplomatic corps of Ankara .

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 28 - Pope Benedict XVI urged leaders of all religions Tuesday to "utterly refuse" to support any form of violence in the name of faith, while Turkey's top Muslim cleric complained to the pontiff of growing "Islamophobia" in the world.

As he began his first visit to a Muslim country — a trip that drew extraordinary security but few onlookers — Benedict sought a careful balance as he extended friendship and brotherhood to Muslims, hoping to end the outcry from many Muslims over his remarks linking Islam to violence.

He expressed support for Turkey's efforts to join the European Union, moving away from opposition he voiced when he was a cardinal.

But the German pope also hammered away at key points of his 18-month papacy, telling diplomats that leaders of all religions must "utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of faith."

He avoided mention of any specific religion, even as he decried terrorism and the "disturbing conflicts across the Middle East."

Benedict also said guarantees of religious freedom are essential for a just society, and the Vatican said he raised specific issues such as property rights of Turkey's tiny 32,000-member Catholic community during talks with Turkish officials.

His comments could be reinforced later during the four-day visit when the pope meets in Istanbul with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.

The pope is expected to call for greater rights and protections for Christian minorities in the Muslim world, including the small Greek Orthodox community in Turkey.

The 79-year-old made reconciliation a priority of his first day, taking on a taxing series of meetings that saw him needing a drink of water after coughing repeatedly while addressing diplomats in the last public appearance in the evening.

Benedict's journey is extraordinarily sensitive, a closely watched pilgrimage full of symbolism that could offer hope of religious reconciliation or deepen what many say is a growing divide between the Christian and Islamic worlds.

Seeking to ease anger over his perceived criticism of Islam, Benedict met with Ali Bardakoglu, who heads religious affairs in Turkey, warmly grasping hands. Benedict sat nearby as the Muslim cleric defended his religion.


The Pope, the Grand Mufti, cardinals and imams at Ankara's Diyanet

"The so-called conviction that the sword is used to expand Islam in the world and growing Islamophobia hurts all Muslims," Bardakoglu said.

The comment appeared to be a reference to Benedict's remarks in a speech in September when he quoted a 14th-century Christian emperor who characterized the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by thy sword the faith he preached."

The Vatican described the cleric's speech as "positive, respectful and non-polemical," applauding what the church sees as efforts for a true dialogue between faiths.

On Sunday, more than 25,000 Turks showed up to an anti-Vatican protest in Istanbul, asking the pope to stay at home, but on the streets of Ankara most people went about their usual business and only a tiny protest was held outside the religious affairs office hours before the pope arrived.

"Today we had the sensation he was a welcome guest," said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

"All feel the same responsibility in this difficult moment in history, let's work together," Benedict said during his flight from Rome to Ankara, where more than 3,000 police and sharpshooters joined a security effort that surpassed even the visit of President Bush two years ago.

"We know that the scope of this trip is dialogue and brotherhood and the commitment for understanding between cultures ... and for reconciliation," he said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — in a last-minute change of plans — welcomed the pope at the foot of the plane and described the visit as "very meaningful." Erdogan's political party has Islamic roots, though the government is secular.

In his first official act, Benedict visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and wrote a message in a guest book calling Turkey "a meeting point of different religions and cultures and a bridge between Asia and Europe."

Police monitored the highway leading to Ankara from the airport, where Turkish and Vatican flags waved in a light breeze. Snipers climbed atop buildings and hilltops. In wooded areas along the route, soldiers in camouflage fatigues set up observation points and sniffer dogs passed along bridges.

It was his first visit to a Muslim country as pontiff. The original goal of the pope's trip to Turkey was to meet Bartholomew I, leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. The two major branches of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Benedict split in 1054 over differences in opinion on the power of the papacy, and the two spiritual heads will meet in an attempt to breach the divide and reunite the churches.


A worker carries religious pictures to decorate the area around 'Mary's House' near Ephesus.

Benedict leaves Ankara on Wednesday for Ephesus, where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years, and will then travel to Istanbul.

A closely watched moment of the trip will come Thursday during Benedict's visit to Haghia Sophia, a 1,500-year-old site that was originally a Byzantine church and then turned into a mosque after the Muslim conquest of Istanbul — then known as Constantinople — in 1453. It is now a museum, and Turks would take offense at any religious gestures by the pontiff, who also plans to visit the nearby Blue Mosque.

In 1967, Pope Paul VI fell to his knees in prayer, touching off protests by Turks claiming he violated the secular nature of the domed complex. In 1979, Pope John Paul II made no overt religious signs during his visit.

In calling for religious leaders to "utterly refuse" any form of violence in the name of faith, Benedict carefully avoided a direct reference to Islam, but he said the "disturbing" conflicts in the world show "no sign of abating."

"I am thinking of the risk of peripheral conflicts multiplying and terrorist actions spreading," the pontiff added, but did not cite specific locations or groups.

The pope called on all religious leaders to reject attempts to wield political power and called on them to "utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of religion."

Benedict also said guarantees of religious freedom are essential for a just society — comments that risked bringing the Vatican into conflict with some Islamic nations that allow only Muslims to worship openly or impose restrictions on religious minorities. The views could be reinforced later during the four-day visit when the pope meets in Istanbul with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.

The pope is expected to call for greater rights and protections for Christian minorities in the Muslim world, including for the tiny Greek Orthodox community in Turkey.

With only some 30,000 Roman Catholics in a nation of some 72 million Muslims, the trip lacked the pageantry of a usual papal pilgrimage. With fear for the pope's safety, only one open air event is planned during the four-day trip with all other events in heavily guarded buildings.

Security forces were posted on rooftops and roadways around the pope's route. Only a few Turks broke away from their daily routine to watch the papal motorcade pass.


Here is the AsiaNews wrap-up:

Pope urges dialogue
between Christians and Muslims
On the first day of his trip to Turkey, Benedict XVI expresses esteem and respect for Islam whilst demanding respect for freedom of religion.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
by Franco Pisano



Dialogue between Christians and Muslims is “a vital necessity, on which in large measure our future depends,” Benedict XVI said to Muslim leaders when he visited Cologne in August of last year.

He repeated the same words today almost to reiterate his opinion on the encounter with Islam, despite any misunderstandings his Regensburg speech might have caused.

The atmosphere that welcomed the Pope in Ankara today is different from that of previous days. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met him at the airport, which he had ruled out until the last moment. And his remarks were definitely positive, centred on cooperation between cultures and on the Pope’s respect for Islam.

For his part, Benedict XVI told journalist travelling with him on the plane that Turkey has a key role to play as a bridge between East and West. He also referred to the affection John XXII had for this land as he visited the Atatürk mausoleum, where the founder of modern Turkey is buried.

On the Guest Book he wrote: “In this land, meeting place and crossroads of different religions and cultures, hinge between Asia and Europe, I gladly make my own the words of the founder of the Turkish Republic: I wish ‘peace at home, peace in the world”.

The first day of Benedict XVI’s visit to Turkey was dedicated to inter-faith dialogue. In both of his official speeches, the Pope stressed the need to respect religious freedom.

The Pope was received as a “head of state” but beside political leaders and military there was no one to greet him. This was expected in a country still prey to agitation caused by negative Muslim reactions to the Pope.

Along the 45 kilometres that separate the airport from the Atatürk mausoleum, which resembles a Greek temple, there were no smiling faces the Pope could greet from the armoured car that whisked him into town. He saw instead the stony faces of saluting soldiers standing by the side of roads kept under tight control by Turkish security forces.

In the city, amidst the many mosques with their minarets a few veiled women went by their business outnumbered by young women in jeans, their hair brushed by the wind.

At the end of his meeting with the Pope, Prime Minister Erdogan also spoke about dialogue citing the Turkish-Spanish initiative for an alliance between civilisations against the “clash” of civilisations that is on everyone’s lips, an initiative, he said, that is backed by the Pope.

“Benedict XVI,” he added, “agreed with me that Islam is a religion of love and peace”.

“We are going through a tough time,” he said, “because of a clash of civilisations underway. For this reason I find the Pope’s visit to a country that is 95 per cent Muslim, democratic and secular important and significant. His visit is important because it sends to the world a message of tolerance and peace. The Pope agrees with me".

The Prime Minister stated that the Pope expressed his support for Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. The Pope’s staff clarified the statement saying that the Holy See views favourably a rapprochement between Turkey and Europe and the constructive relationship with Europe but since it [the Holy See] is not a “political” entity it does not have a position on Turkey’s application to join the European Union.

Clarification apart, Erdogan’s remarks are decidedly more peaceful compared to the harsh words he had right after the Pope’s Regensburg speech.

In his meeting with Ali Bardakoglu, chairman of the Religious Affairs Directorate, the Pope expressed respect for Islam and love for Turks, but he also reiterated the need to protect religious freedom.

The meeting with the official who oversees the country’s mosques and imams, and who, till recently wanted the Pope to apologise for insulting Islam at Regensburg, was the most awaited event of the day. The grand muftis if Ankara and Istanbul were also present for the occasion.

“I prepared myself to this visit to Turkey,” the Pope said, “with the same sentiments as my predecessor, the blessed Jean XXIII, when he came here as archbishop Angelo Roncalli and Pontifical representative in Istanbul [and who said]: ‘I feel I love with the Turkish people among whom the Lord has sent me . . . . I love the Turks; I appreciate the natural qualities of this people, which has its ready-made place on the path of civilisation’ (Giornale dell'anima, 231.237)”.

In what is considered his speech to Islam, Turkish and non Turkish, Benedict XVI said that a dialogue is a “necessity” and that Christians and Muslims can make a great contribution to a world troubled by many problems ranging from poverty to environmental degradation and peace.

“In particular,” he added, “we can offer a credible answer to the question that clearly comes out from today’s society even though it is often put side, namely the question about the meaning and purpose of life for each and every individual and for the whole of humanity."

"We are called upon to work together to help society to open up to the transcendental and acknowledge to God Almighty the place He deserves. The best way to go forward is that of an authentic dialogue between Christians and Muslims based on the truth and inspired by a sincere desire to better know one another, respecting our differences and acknowledging what we have in common. That will concurrently bring about an authentic respect for responsible choices each person must make, especially when it comes to fundamental values and personal religious convictions.”

In these words as Pope, Ratzinger the theologian is vindicated. Attacked for a quote considered offensive to Islam in his “lectio” in Regensburg, he today used another one to talk positively about Muslims and dialogue.

“As an example of brotherly respect with which Christians and Muslims can work together,” he said, “I’d like to quote a few words Pope Gregory VII addressed in 1076 to a Muslim prince in North Africa who had been benevolent towards Christians under his rule. Pope Gregory VII spoke of the special charity Christians and Muslims owed each other because ‘we believe and confess one God, albeit in different ways. Every day we praise Him and venerate Him as Creator of the centuries and ruler of this world (PL 148, 451)”.

Last but not least, the Pope could not avoid talking about freedom of religion.

“When it [religious freedom] is institutionally guaranteed and effectively respected,” he said in a country whose EU membership is held up in part because of this issue, “for both individuals and communities, it becomes for all believers the necessary condition for their loyal contribution to building society, in an attitude of sincere service, especially towards the more vulnerable and the poor”.

The Pope returned to this issue in the waning hours of the day when he met, in the Nunciature, about 90 diplomatic representatives accredited in Turkey.

To them he said that it “is the fundamental expression of human freedom”, insisting that “the active presence of religions in society is factor of progress and enrichment for all. This implies,” he noted, “that religions do not try to exercise political power directly, because that is not their role. In particular, they must absolutely renounce any justification of violence as a legitimate religious practice.”

His last thought was for “the conflict in the Middle East” which “continues and is dangerously burdening international life with the risk that localised conflicts might widen and terrorism spread.”

“I salute,” he said, “the efforts of many countries involved today in rebuilding peace in Lebanon, among them Turkey.”

“I appeal once more,” he concluded, “to the international community to assume its responsibilities and make every effort to promote dialogue among the parties in conflict. Only this can ensure respect towards others whilst safeguarding the parties’ legitimate interests and reject any recourse to violence.”


On day one, Benedict adopts
'soft tone' in Turkey

Posted on Nov 28, 2006
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Ankara, Turkey


Coming into his Nov. 28- Dec. 1 Turkey trip, it seemed the tightrope Benedict XVI would have to walk would run between affirming his challenge to Muslims on terrorism and reciprocity, while at the same time convincing them of his sincere desire for good brotherly relations.

So far, Benedict still seems to be walking that rope, though his instinct appears to be that if he has to err in one direction or the other, it’s going to be in the direction of good will.

Improbably, it was the Lebanese Ambassador to Turkey who provided the day’s tagline when he complimented Benedict for his “soft tone” in his welcome to the pope in a Tuesday evening session with the diplomatic corps in Ankara. Ambassador Georges H. Siam said that softness should create the basis for a “promising journey.”

Throughout day one, the pope missed no opportunity to stress his desire for good relations. In his speech at the Religious Affairs Directorate, for example, he expressed “profound esteem for all the people of this great country,” and greeted Turkish Muslims “with particular esteem and affectionate regard.” Invoking the memory of the late Pope John XXIII, who served for ten years in Turkey as apostolic delegate, Benedict said he’s eager for “sincere exchange between friends.”

Benedict’s decision to physically visit the offices of the Religious Affairs Directorate, known in Turkey as the Diyanet, was itself seen as a gesture of respect, since most often dignitaries come to the pope for such encounters.

Five cardinals accompanied the pope: Tarcisio Bertone, Secretariat of State; Paul Poupard, President of the Council for Culture and the Council for Inter-religious Dialogue; Roger Etchegaray, emeritus President of the Council for Justice and Peace; Igance Moussa Daoud, Prefect of the Council for Oriental Churches; and Walter Kasper, President of the Council for Christian Unity.

In his meeting with Ali Bardakoglu, head of the Diyanet, Benedict indicated that the Catholic Church wants to move forward with the vision of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and its vision of dialogue and openness to the other great religions of the world.

He also told Bardakoglu that his decision in May to appoint Poupard as president of botht he Council for Culture and for Inter-religious Dialogue was not a way to “diminish” the latter, but to “integrate” and “reinforce” the work of both offices.

In what seemed almost a deliberate counter-point to his infamous quotation from a 14th century Byzantine emperor at the University of Regensburg, Benedict this time cited an 11th century pope, Gregory VII, who said to a Muslim prince in 1076 that Christians and Muslims owe charity to one another “because we believe in one God, albeit in a different manner, and because we praise him and worship him every day as the Creator and Ruler of the world.”

Benedict was careful when referring to God to use constructions such as “the Almighty” and “Merciful,” respecting Muslim sensitivities.

To date, his Turkish hosts have reciprocated the upbeat tone. To date, no one has explicitly referred to Benedict’s Regensburg address, though Lombardi told reporters that he thought he heard echoes of some Muslim reaction to the speech, especially in terms of the relationship between Islam and reason, in Bardakoglu’s remarks to the pope.

Yet in his later address to the diplomatic corps in Turkey, Benedict returned to the two themes which have formed the core of his message to Muslims: the need to reject terrorism, and the need for “reciprocity,” meaning religious freedom.

“The civil authorities of every democratic country are duty bound to guarantee the effective freedom of all believers and to permit them to organize freely the life of their religious communities,” he said. “I am certain that religious liberty is a fundamental expression of human liberty and that the active presence of religions in society is a source of progress and enrichment for all.”

It’s noteworthy that Benedict chose to raise the religious freedom issue in his meeting with ambassadors rather than at the Religious Affairs Directorate, where it might have seemed a more direct compliant about his host nation.

Turkey’s tiny Christian population (roughly 100,000 in a country of 71 million) suffers under a variety of restrictions, both de jure and de facto. Perhaps most notably, the Patriarch of Constantinople has been unable to train his own clergy at the historic Halki Seminary, which has been closed by order of the Turksih government since 1971.

Benedict also issued a clear warning that religions should shun direct political power, a point with special relevance in a country that features several Islamic political parties, and insisted that religious leaders must “utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of religion.”

In some ways, Benedict appeared to echo some of the warnings he and his predecessor, John Paul II, have issued to former states of the Soviet sphere now making their way into the EU, namely to avoid an exaggerated secularism that would assign religion to a purely private sphere.

In the context of both European and Turkish debates over secularism, Benedict affirmed the legitimacy of church/state separation, but argued that religious believers nevertheless have a legitimate political contribution to make in defense of human dignity, especially of the most vulnerable.

Even in the context of a speech that contained some indirect challenges for Turkey and for Muslim societies generally, however, Benedict took pains to describe himself as “a friend and as an apostle of dialogue and peace.”

“On the occasion of my visit to Turkey, I wish to reiterate my great esteem for Muslims,” the pope said to the diplomats. The pope said that people must be encouraged “to assert their historical and cultural differences not for the sake of confrontation, but in order to foster mutual respect.”

Benedict also surveyed the international situation, saying recent developments with terrorism have illustrated the need to strengthen international institutions and to give them the means to prevent conflict and to create neutral zones between belligerents.

The pope mentioned the Middle East and Lebanon as conflict zones of particular concerned, and called upon the international community not to abandon its responsibility in the region.




[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/11/2006 12.37]

29/11/2006 02:57
 
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BENEDICT THE BRAVE

Tue Nov 28, 8:04 PM ET
By Maggie Gallagher
Yahoo News

It takes a lot of faith to believe that any good will come of Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey -- but of course, Benedict has that in spades.

The media will naturally enough focus on the trip's possible impact on the future of Muslim-Christian relations. After the violent reaction to Pope Benedict's speech at the University of Regensburg, in Germany, last September, a lot of us Catholics will simply be holding our breath and saying a few extra Hail Marys. ("I have a bad feeling about this trip," a friend of mine muttered darkly, speaking for a lot of us.)

But for Benedict, the highlight and purpose of his trip lies elsewhere, especially in the historic meeting with Bartholomew I, the patriarch of Constantinople, the spiritual head of the Orthodox Church. Six centuries after the fall of Constantinople, Patriarch Bartholomew's flock is tiny, perhaps just 2,000 people. But just before taking off, Pope Benedict spoke with reporters on the plane, according to National Catholic Reporter's John Allen: "Numbers don't really count," Benedict said. "It's the symbolic and historical weight (of the office) that matters."

Bringing together "the two sister churches of Rome and Constantinople," the pope said, is a "very important moment in the search for Christian unity." It is, he acknowledged, a symbolic encounter, but one that "is not just empty, but is full of reality."

One of the realities the pope seeks to call to our attention is how utterly oppressed by the Turkish government this tiny flock of Orthodox Christians remains.

Too many powerful people, when they talk about the importance of defending civil liberties, really mean (as Kevin J. Hasson of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty puts it) "their favorite civil liberties." Which may be one reason why, although I was acutely aware that the government of Turkey faced sharp criticism from the West for putting novelists, historians, journalists -- and even, in one case, an archeologist with novel theories about the uses to which ancient Sumerians put headscarves -- on trial, I had not heard before of the disgraceful state of dhimmitude to which the patriarch of Constantinople and his church remain subject to this day.

George Weigel points out in Newsweek that the Turkish government closed the patriarchate's seminary in 1971 and refuses to permit it to reopen. The patriarchate is not permitted to own property, including the churches in its jurisdiction. "Turkish authorities have also confiscated houses, apartment buildings, schools, monasteries and lands that were once owned by the Ecumenical Patriarchate; the state seized the patriarchate's 36 cemeteries, which are now the property of various legal subdivisions of the city of Istanbul; and, earlier this year, the state confiscated the boys' orphanage run by the patriarchate (which is the oldest wooden building in Europe and of great historical value)," reports Weigel. The Turkish government also determines who may teach in Orthodox schools and what books they use. With considerable understatement, he adds: "No Christian community in the West would tolerate such conditions, which involve violations of basic human rights."

None of which has made news in Europe or America in the same way that oppressing academics, artists, editors or other symbolic analysts has. With Orthodox Christians amounting to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the population, it is hard to identify a more vulnerable minority, or one with fewer influential public defenders.

Let us hope one may be enough. Just before takeoff, Benedict told reporters on the plane he begins the trip with "great trust and hope," counting on the support and prayer of many persons -- including, he said, the Turkish people, "who want peace."

"Turkey has always been a bridge between cultures, a place of meeting and dialogue," the pope said.

Like I said: a brave man.

[Modificato da benefan 29/11/2006 3.34]

29/11/2006 03:34
 
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Pope gets book on destroyed Muslim edifices of Cyprus

Tue Nov 28, 2:59 PM ET
Yahoo News

In a bit of tit-for-tat diplomacy, Pope Benedict XVI received a gift of two books from Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Muslim edifices destroyed by Greek Cypriots on Cyprus.

They will no doubt find a place on his bookshelf next to the picture album of Orthodox churches on the divided island destroyed by the Turks -- a recent gift from Cyprus' Greek President Tassos Papadopoulos.

The Anatolia news agency reported that the two volumes in English that Sezer presented to the pope during their brief meeting at the presidential palace here on the first day of the pontiff's visit, show Muslim cultural and religious buildings demolished during the island's years of violence.

One of the books says Greek Cypriots damaged or destroyed no fewer than 117 mosques on the island between 1958 and 1974, when the island's two communities were effectively separated by a Turkish military invasion in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aiming to unite the island with Greece.

Papadopoulos, during a November 10 audience at the Vatican, presented the pope with a 19th-century icon salvaged from a destroyed church, along with a photo album of 300 churches destroyed or put to other uses in the Turkish sector of the island.

Benedict's visit here comes at a time when the European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, is putting pressure on Ankara to open its air and sea ports to Cyprus, whose Greek-Cypriot administration it does not recognise.

Turkey refuses to do so until the international isolation of the island's Turkish community is ended, and there are fears that Ankara's membership talks with the EU, begun in October 2005, could be at least partially suspended.
29/11/2006 04:45
 
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Wednesday schedule for Pope Benedict in Turkey

Nov. 28 (CWNews.com) - During the 2nd day of his trip to Turkey, on November 29, Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Ephesus, celebrating Mass there; then he will continue on to Istanbul, where he will be greeted by the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I.

The Holy Father will leave Ankara early on Wednesday, taking a motorcade to the airport for his flight to the ancient city of Ephesus, where St. Paul preached. There he will celebrate Mass at the Marian shrine of Meryem Ana Evi-- at the site where, according to pious tradition, the Virgin Mary spent her last days on earth.

After lunch with the Catholic bishops of Turkey, at a Capuchin monastery at Ephesus, the Pontiff will take another flight to Istanbul, to the historic patriarchal see of Constantinople that is the main focus of this trip.

From the airport-- where he will be greeted by local government officials and religious leaders-- the Pope will proceed to the patriarchal church of St. George, where he will join the Ecumenical Patriarch in a Byzantine prayer service.

Patriarch Bartholomew will deliver his formal welcoming address, and the Pope will respond with his own greetings. Then the two prelates will venerate the relics of Sts. Gregory Nazianzen and John Chrysostom-- both former patriarchs of Constantinople. These relics, which had been brought to Rome in the 8th century for safekeeping during the iconoclast controversy, were returned to the Constantinople patriarchate in 2004 by Pope John Paul II (bio - news). Patriarch Bartholomew, who traveled to Rome to receive the relics, said that the gesture marked the "most important event" of his tenure as Ecumenical Patriarch.

Following their public appearances, the Pope and the Orthodox leader will meet privately in the Patriarch's palace at Phanar. Then the Pope will travel to the residence of the pontifical mission in Istanbul, where he will spend his 2nd night in Turkey.
29/11/2006 08:29
 
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In the Shadow of Muhammad


By Alexander Smoltczyk in Ankara
Spiegel online

The pope arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to a reception of empty streets, somber-faced officials and indifferent Turks. But the pope smiled. And even managed a joke at his own expense. All part of his Velvet Invasion.

Pope Benedict XVI didn't find too many smiling faces in Turkey on Tuesday. That of Ali Bardakoglu, head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, is about as close as it got.

On Tuesday morning, it almost seemed as though Ankara was preparing itself for the arrival of a shipment of toxic waste. The airport and its surroundings were almost completely deserted; the streets on the way into the Turkish capital were empty; and the soldiers posted on the hills stood motionless.

When the Airbus Piazza del Duomo Lecce flying in from Rome came to a stop on the runway, it was immediately surrounded by elite troops, with broad shining ammunition belts slung across their shoulders. Not a single banner was to be seen -- indeed, given the controversy preceding the visit, a welcome sign may even have seemed in poor taste.

"This is not a political visit," the pope said on board the plane to Turkey, "but a pastoral mission aimed at promoting dialogue and a common commitment to peace." His voice was hoarse, and he seemed in a somber mood. The journalists should be aware of their responsibilities, he said. Over the next few days every word will count. "Great results cannot be expected from three days, I would say the value is symbolic," he said. It is all about the gesture.

Muhammad overshadowing his every move

There were no anthems at the airfield -- no streamers or children. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stood at the foot of the gangway and looked as though he were trying to avoid even the appearance of a smile. As the two walked along the short red carpet to the airport's VIP area, the pope's coat seemed to bulge at the shoulders and the back, as if he was actually wearing a bullet-proof vest underneath. Perhaps just an illusion.

If this is supposed to be, as viewed by the nationalist-Islamist Felicity Party, a crusade to re-establish Byzantium in the 99-percent Muslim Turkey, then it will be the most gentle invasion in history. It seems more of a repentance than an occupation. The pope's September remarks, interpreted by many to be insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, overshadow his every move.

Hardly into the VIP-room in the airport, Benedict XVI assures his Turkish hosts that the Vatican would certainly welcome the accession of Turkey to the European Union. A little later, at the shrine to the secular founder of Turkey Kemal Mustafa Atatürk, the Pope bowed his head and folded his hands as he would before the grave of one of the apostles.


And he smiled. A lot. He kept smiling when Erdogan accidentally dropped the lid to the gift box the pope brought. He keept smiling when Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer received him with a stone-cold expression on his face. And when receiving the diplomatic corps, he calmly accepted the fact that Oman snubbed him by only sending a deputy.

During both the pope's speeches on Monday, it was clear just how hard he was working to put the past behind him. Every time he uttered the word "Christian" is was immediately followed up by "and Muslim." He wanted to avoid any hint that he felt his fellow Christians should enjoy precedence over the world's Muslims.

"There are very many Christian and Muslim monuments that testify to Turkey's glorious past," he told Ali Bardakoglu, head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directories. He went on to praise Turkey for its having preserved its historical monuments -- and ignored the fact that churches and cemetaries belonging to Armenians, Greeks and Syrians are left to decay in Anatolia. He emphasized the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, which enumerated the common Abrahamic roots of Islam and Christianity. He spoke of both religions as upholding the dignity of man.

A rhetorical masterpiece

And for one brief moment, the pope even showed his sense of humor. "I would like to recite a few sentences from Pope Gregorius VII from the year 1076, which he directs at a Muslim prince from North Africa...," he began, and everyone trembled at the thought of a new blunder, another misunderstood Koran-exegesis. Benedict XVI though seemed to enjoy the moment. He continued: "Gregorius VII spoke of the special love ('caritas') that Christians and Muslims owe each other, for 'we both believe in and attest to the one God, if in different ways, every day we praise Him and revere Him as the creator of the centuries and ruler of this world.'"


Although in most of his speeches, Benedict XVI makes a habit of condemning the rule of secularism in the industrialized world, in Ankara he actually preached the virtues of Turkish secularism before the gathered diplomats. Civil society in Turkey, he praised, "is clearly separated from religion, so that each can be autonomous in its own field, always respecting the sphere of the other."

It was a rhetorical masterpiece. While praising Turkey's constitutional separation between church and state, the pope was at the same time urging the country to live up to its own law. "I am pleased that believers, whatever religion they may belong to, continue to enjoy this right in the certainty that freedom of religion is one of the cornerstones of humanity's freedom."

On Wednesday, Benedict XVI is off to Izmir to visit a site where Mary is believed to have lived and died. From there, he will move on to Istanbul. And again, the pope will likely be met with a large degree of indifference.

But Benedict does have one consolation: his predecessor didn't have it any better. John Paul II also travelled to Turkey -- with stops in Ankara, Istanbul and Ephesus -- right at the beginning of his papacy in November 1979. He too found a cool reception, complete with insults and death threats -- just like the pope from Germany.
29/11/2006 09:56
 
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Pope seeks to calm Muslim anger
By Malcolm Moore, Ankara, Daily Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:52am GMT 29/11/2006
The Pope called for an "authentic dialogue" between Christians and Muslims yesterday at the start of a four-day trip to Turkey, as he sought to calm anger in the Islamic world caused by remarks last September linking Islam to violence.
His hosts responded with conciliatory words of their own. But the pontiff was ambushed into supporting Turkey's bid for entry to the European Union and then reprimanded by Prof Ali Bardakoglu, the head of the state-run religious affairs department.
Benedict XVI, making his first visit to a Muslim country since his election in April 2005, appeared uncomfortable as Dr Bardakoglu emphasised the "vast tolerance of Islam" and said that people who suggested it was a violent religion only gave extremists more cause for hate.
In a clear reference to the Pope's words at Regensberg University, Mr Bardakoglu said religious leaders should not try to "demonstrate the superiority of their own beliefs" or waste time in discussing "the theology of religions".
He said that Muslims universally rejected accusations that Islam "was spread over the world by swords".
The Vatican tried to play down the attack, saying that Dr Bardakoglu had been "positive and respectful" and that there was "no controversy".
The Pope, in his speech, repeated that Christianity and Islam had more in common than not. Having caused the original rift by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who accused Muslims of being "evil and inhumane", he turned again to medieval times to try to make amends.
He quoted Pope Gregory VII, who said in 1076 that Christians and Muslims "believe and confess to one God, even if in different ways, and every day we praise and venerate him as Creator of the ages and Lord of this world". He also said that Turkey "is very kind to Christians". Almost every paragraph of the Pope's speech dwelt on the shared ground between the religions. "Christians and Muslims belong to the family who believe in the one God, and who, according to their respective traditions, look back to Abraham," he said.
The Vatican has made clear that it wants the Pope's trip to reverse the damage done by his previous comments. At the end of the week, the Pope will become only the second pontiff to visit a mosque. The first visit was made by John Paul II in Damascus in 2001.
Despite reports that protesters were mobilising, the Turkish capital was calm.
About 50 riot police with shields and body armour gathered outside the marble mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk before the Pope's visit. However, not a single protester emerged to challenge them.
The Pope was also caught out politically within half an hour of arriving at Ankara airport. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, who greeted him, immediately asked for his support for Turkey's entry into the European Union.
Two years ago, as Joseph Ratzinger, he had said that he opposed Turkey's entry.
However, Mr Erdogan was able to boast after their meeting that the Pope had performed an about-turn and would now support Turkey.
Later, the Vatican issued a statement. It said: "The Holy See does not have the power or specific task, politically, to intervene on the precise point of Turkey's entrance into the European Union. It does not strive for it.
"All the same, it sees positively and encourages the path of dialogue and of [Turkey] becoming closer and integrated into Europe”.
29/11/2006 09:58
 
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[Modificato da Yvonne44 29/11/2006 9.58]



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[Modificato da Yvonne44 29/11/2006 10.00]

29/11/2006 12:19
 
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DAY-TWO: THE POPE IN EPHESUS


Supreme Pontiff becomes
a simple country pastor

Posted on Nov 29, 2006
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Ephesus, Turkey





On a beautiful fall afternoon on a Turkish hillside, Pope Benedict XVI, Supreme Pontiff of the 1.1 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church, metamorphosed into a simple country pastor, celebrating an outdoor Mass for no more than 300 pilgrims – perhaps half Germans who belong to the nearby German-language parish of St. Nicholas.

It was the smallest crowd in recent memory for a papal Mass, though the turnout was mostly due to the remote location and the tiny size of Turkey’s Christian community. The event had an intimate feel, with the assembly physically closer to the pope than is often the case. The bank of concelebrating priests, bishops and cardinals almost seemed equal to the size of the congregation.

In a fitting pastoral touch, Benedict XVI spoke the opening collect of the Mass in Turkish, drawing appreciative nods from the assembly.

Predictably, the pope’s message centered on Mary. The Sanctuary of Meryem Ana Evì (the “House of Mary”) was founded by the Lazarist Fathers in the 19th century, based on the visions of the German mystic Anna Katherine Emmerick, who identified this spot as the place where Mary died.

Though even the official Vatican Radio trip book notes that there’s no archaeological evidence to support the claim, the sanctuary nevertheless boasts a unique distinction, in that it’s perhaps the only Marian shrine on earth which draws as many Muslim pilgrims as Christians. Inside are votive reliefs with quotations from seven passages of the Qu’ran praising Mary.

Invoking the reverence which Muslims have for Mary, Benedict implored the small crowd to “lift up a prayer to the Lord, a special prayer for peace between peoples.” He referred to the Anatolian peninsula as “a natural bridge between continents.”

Benedict also again recalled the memory of Pope John XXIII, who served as Apostolic Delegate in Turkey from 1933 to 1945. Benedict quoted the late pope as saying, “I love the Turks.”

For Turkey’s tiny Christian community, estimated at roughly 100,000 among Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants, it’s becoming steadily more clear that Benedict’s trip represents something of a “coming out” event, emboldening them to be more vocal about their presence and the struggles their communities face.

Eisn Tunali, 38, is a Muslim covert to Protestantism who drove six hours to attend the papal Mass in Ephesus. She told NCR that when she converted to Christianity six years ago, it took three months to have her new religious affiliation reflected on her Turkish identity card, and her request actually elicited a period of police surveillance.

“They told me that Islam is the third revelation of God” after Judaism and Christianity, Tunali said. “They asked why I wanted to go back.”

Today, Tunali said, things are becoming easier in some ways – as reflected by the fact, she said, that today it only takes about five minutes to change the identity card.

Asked about Benedict XVI’s comments on Islam at the University of Regensburg, Tunali said she agreed with the substance of what the pope had tried to say, but not with the language. She said this trip allows Turks to get a different impression of the pope.

“They can see that anybody can make a mistake,” she said. “This is kind of like an apology.”


The Holy Father arrives at Izmir airport from Ankara

Pope honors slain priest
at Turkey Mass

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
Associated Press Writer



SELCUK, Turkey - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday honored the memory of a Roman Catholic priest who was slain amid Muslim anger over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers.

A Turkish teenager shot the priest in February, as he knelt in prayer in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. The attack was believed linked to the outrage over the cartoons. Two other Catholic priests also were attacked in Turkey this year.

"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," Benedict said at an outdoor Mass.

Benedict cited one of his predecessors, Pope John XXIII, who served as a papal diplomat in Turkey in the 1940s. He quoted him as saying, "I love the Turks. I appreciate the natural qualities of these people, who have their own place reserved in the march of civilization."

While reaching out to the Turks and the larger Muslim world during his trip, Benedict also reached out to this country's Catholics, describing them as "the little flock" in largely Muslim Turkey. He said he wanted to "offer a word of encouragement and to manifest the affection of the whole church."

"With great love, I greet all of you here present," he told 250 worshippers who gathered next to the ruins of a house where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years.

"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.


In his first mass on Muslim land,
Pope makes new appeal for Middle East peace

by Hande Culpan

EPHESUS, Turkey (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI has begun the religious leg of his four-day visit to Turkey Wednesday by celebrating his first mass on Muslim soil at the Home of the Virgin Mary and making a fresh appeal for peace in the Middle East.

"Love and peace be with you," the pope said in Turkish at the start of the ceremony at the modest hill-top shrine outside the ancient city of Ephesus and about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the Aegean port of Izmir on Wednesday.



On a warm, sunny day, dozens of those among the hand-picked crowd of about 500 faithful saluted the pope waving Vatican and Turkish flags and palm fronds.

"From this edge of the Anatolian peninsula, a natural bridge between continents, let us implore peace and reconciliation, above all for those dwelling in the Land called 'Holy' and considered as such by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike," the pope said in his homily.

"Peace for all of humanity!" he urged. "We all need this universal peace."

The 79-year-old pontiff, who arrived in Ephesus on the second day of a challenging four-day trip to mainly Muslim Turkey, added: "The Church is called to be not only the prophetic herald, but even more, the 'sign and instrument' of this peace."

The pope recalled that the Virgin Mary, venerated by Christians as the mother of Christ, "is equally venerated by Muslims."

"The pope... said pretty much what we all have at heart," said Marina Bandirma, 56, an American married to a Turk and living in the nearby resort of Kusadasi. "I believe the pope might have helped bridge the gap (between Muslims and Christians). He left us with a nice, warm feeling."

Her husband Enver, 59, a Muslim, agreed.

"It was important to come here on such a special day," he said. "He is the spiritual leader of a billion people -- he is one of the most important people on Earth."

Asked about the pope's controversial remarks in September equating Islam with violence, Bandirma was forgiving.

"He had already apologized after the September speech, but we didn't understand it," said the retired engineer. "We saw today that he sincerely wants rapprochement with Muslims.

"I hope the seeds he has sown bear fruit."

Wednesday's mass, like every step of the papal trip so far, took place under heavy security, with paramilitary troops checking identity cards before guests and reporters were allowed to make the 425-meter ascent to the shrine, closed to visitors for the day.

Christians living in Turkey and abroad had gathered at the site as early as three hours before the mass, which began at 1000 GMT.

"I feel lucky. There are so many people who want to see the pope and don't get a chance," said Albano Servisoglu, a half-Turkish, half-Italian 19-year-old from Izmir, as he queued to go through electronic security.

A group of 20 Catholics -- Latin, Armenian, Syriac -- arrived, playing guitars and singing "Gloria, Gloria."

"We are here to see the first German-born pope," said Rudolf Wittig, a 66-year-old German restaurateur from the Mediterranean city of Antalya. "This mass is a very important event for us."

"This is a great opportunity to see the pope, especially the first time he comes to a Muslim country," said Fernando Alcazar, a 45-year-old Spaniard and an Izmir resident for the past two years.

"Pope Benedict XVI is from Germany and there are a lot of Turks living in Germany. His visit here will be a very good message to them," he said.

"I heard what the pope said yesterday. It is time to make peace between Christians and Muslims," said Father Charles Korten as he led a group of German Catholics from Antalya.

The pope's potentially explosive trip got off to an unexpectedly smooth start in Ankara on Tuesday, when both sides traded gestures and words of good will to defuse tensions caused by his remarks in September equating Islam and violence.

Jitters over the pope's visit, his first as pontiff to a Muslim country, led to a security blanket even tighter than that laid out for US President George W. Bush when he visited during a 2004 NATO summit.

The pontiff was scheduled to fly to Istanbul later Wednesday to meet Patriarch Bartholomew I, head of the Greek Orthodox Church - initially the main purpose of the trip to Turkey - in the latest display of rapprochement between the two estranged branches of Christianity.


Pope makes further Muslim-Christian gesture By Philip Pullella and Ercan Ersoy

EFES, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey on Wednesday praised the conciliatory tone of Pope Benedict during his visit to the predominantly Muslim country and his apparent new support for Ankara's bid to join the European Union.

Celebrating mass at a shrine in southwestern Turkey where legend says the Virgin Mary lived out her last days, Benedict stressed that a common devotion to the mother of Jesus Christ is another link binding Christians and Muslims.

As Benedict continued his four-day visit, Turkey focused on his gestures on arrival on Tuesday: his apparent support for Ankara's bid to join the European Union and praise for Islam after a recent speech Muslims found insulting.

"This is a big warning for conservative politicians who think the EU is a Christian club," wrote daily Milliyet columnist Guneri Civaoglu.

At the NATO summit in Riga, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan had told him he was "very satisfied" with the start of the Pope's trip.

Benedict said in his sermon: "From here in Ephesus, a city blessed by the presence of Mary Most Holy - who we know is loved and venerated also by Muslims - let us lift up to the Lord a special prayer for peace between peoples."

The Koran describes Mary as the virgin mother of Jesus, whom Muslims consider the greatest prophet after Mohammed, and some Muslims - especially women - visit shrines to her.

The rough stone house where she is said to have died stands amid olive and pine trees outside the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, now a collection of ruins known in Turkish as Efes.



Pope Benedict XVI kneels in prayer
in the Chapel of the Capuchins's convent at the
House of the Virgin Mary is Selcuk, near Ephesus


Benedict's trip was originally meant just as a visit to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul to try to bring the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches closer. There are some 100,000 Christians in Turkey.

But his speech in September seemed to stress differences between Christianity and Islam and to link Islam and violence - a link he denied making after Muslims protested angrily.

That turned the trip into a symbolic visit to the Muslim world crucial for the future of Vatican relations with Islam.

Benedict's comments on his first official visit to a Muslim country appeared to go a long way toward making up for that speech in Germany, which led to several attacks on churches in the Muslim world and the murder of an Italian nun in Somalia.

The Pope, reportedly under tighter security than when President Bush visited in 2004, also appeared to do an about-face from his previous opposition to Ankara's EU bid.

A Vatican spokesman played down gesture but did not deny it.

Turks had hoped the Pontiff's visit would convince skeptical Europeans that the relatively poor country of 73 million was worthy of EU membership.

The EU has criticized Turkey for its treatment of non-Muslim religious minorities. Benedict stressed in another Ankara speech that all democratic countries must guarantee religious freedom.

Turkey's EU ambitions suffered a blow on Wednesday when the European Commission decided to recommend the suspension of part of Turkey's EU membership talks over Ankara's failure to open its ports to traffic from EU member Cyprus.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/11/2006 11.13]

29/11/2006 13:05
 
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DAY-TWO
An honor guard at Ankara airport as Pope leaves for Izmir.


Arriving in Izmir:


At Izmir airport lounge, where the Pope is served a snack before taking the 45-km route by car to Mary's House in Selcuk, near ancient Ephesus (Efes in Turkish).


Here's a great sidebar from the Guardian with details about the Ephesus stop which the other stories did not have.

Pope defies security fears
to visit Virgin Mary's house

By John Hooper in Efes, western Turkey
Thursday November 30, 2006
The Guardian



Pope Benedict is unlikely ever to conduct a more intimate or hazardous mass in public than the one he held yesterday at the house some believe was the home of Jesus's mother, Mary.

As he sat, resplendent in white and gold robes, before a congregation that would not have filled the average parish church, he quoted from the autobiography of John XXIII, who served as papal nuncio (ambassador) to Turkey.

"I love the Turks," his predecessor had exclaimed. "I appreciate the natural qualities of these people, who have their place reserved in the march of civilisation."

Benedict XVI, speaking just 11 weeks after he provoked outrage in the Muslim world with another, less flattering quotation, must have been aware that he had come to a sniper's paradise.

The house of the Virgin Mary, the Meryemana evi, as it is known in Turkish, looks out over a valley to two heavily wooded hillsides. The only way in or out is along a two-lane road overlooked by crags and copses that winds up from the ruins of classical Ephesus on the plain below.

Turkish officials said this was the stage of the Pope's trip that had most alarmed the organisers. According to local people, soldiers began searching the hills a month ago. "But there are so many rocks and trees, they can't know exactly what is up there," one said.

The route to Ephesus, or Efes in Turkish, from Izmir airport, 45 miles away, lies across mainly flat country. The convoy of vehicles that brought the papal party was shadowed by a helicopter flying low beside the motorway. The rearmost vehicle was an ambulance.

Not everyone had looked forward to yesterday's events with apprehension though. At the tiny stone building that was the focus of all this attention, Sister Ania hummed merrily as she smoothed a lace cloth in the room where the Pope was to change.

"This could be the only chance I get in my life to see a pope," she said. "My father in Warsaw is so excited at the thought I'll be on TV."

The credentials of Meryemana evi are shaky. The gospels say that Jesus's mother was entrusted to St John, and legend has it that he fled to Ephesus.

Yet it was not until the end of the 19th century that the visions of a German nun led Catholics to take an interest in a structure that had earlier been revered by the Orthodox. It is barely 20 foot across, and consists of three rooms, each topped by a shallow dome. Only the lower courses of the stonework are thought to date back to Roman times.

By the time Pope Benedict arrived, a congregation of 200-300 Catholics had gathered. Some were from Italian families that had lived in the area since Ottoman times.

Geraldine McGrath, who runs a tourist agency on the coast at Kusadasi, was there "because I'm Irish and Catholic, and the Pope's coming. We come here for the weekly service. It's our parish," she said.

Muslims, who revere the Virgin Mary, also pray there. Inside are several framed quotations in Turkish, so it was an ideal location for the Pope to call for "peace between peoples".

But, if that were a fact more than an aspiration, his congregation, drawn from Turkey's 32,000-strong Catholics, would not have to face the "daily challenges and difficulties" on which he also remarked.

Earlier this year one of fewer than 70 Roman Catholic priests in Turkey, an Italian, Andrea Santoro, was murdered in Trabzon for reasons the investigations suggested were at least partly religious.

Cinzia Braggiotti, whose family arrived from Rhodes in 1801, said: "For the first few weeks, yes, there was a bit of tension. But now there is no problem."


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/12/2006 0.19]

29/11/2006 13:16
 
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At core of papal visit,
healing 10-century rift
comes to center stage

by Nicolas Cheviron

ISTANBULNov. 29 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI arrives to tackle the issue at the heart of his first visit to a Muslim land: to heal a 10-century rift between the two feuding branches of Christianity.

After celebrating his first mass on Muslim land at the Home of the Virgin Mary at Ephesus, near Turkey's Aegean coast, the pontiff will head straight for Istanbul and a meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and head of the Orthodox Church on Wednesday.

Both men are committed to bringing their respective churches closer, but healing the centuries-old schism is not easy, officials from both sides said in Istanbul on Tuesday.

"It will not be easy, it will not be a short dialogue, it will not happen this week or next year," said Monsignor Brian Farrell, a member of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. "It needs a long period of reflection... but I do not doubt we are on a good track."

There are only about 2,000 Greek Orthodox left in Turkey, but the moral authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople extends to the entire Orthodox community, estimated at 120 to 180 million souls.

Bartholomew I is considered "primum inter pares" -- the first among equals -- and although the title does not allow him to interfere in the affairs of other Orthodox churches, it gives him a sort of formal and spiritual precedence.

The Moscow Patriarchate which has the biggest number of followers, contests his authority.

Other than the Orthodox of Turkey, the patriarchate here has direct authority over the Greek territories of Mount Athos, the Dodecanese and Crete, and all other communities lacking an autonomous church, such as those of America, Western Europe and Oceania -- a total of some 3.5 million faithful.

The religious role of Constantinople goes back to the Roman Emperor Constantine, who reigned from 306 to 337, made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and gave the city his name.

The "New Rome," as Istanbul then became known, quickly rose to the rank of patriarchate - along with Rome, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem - and quickly distanced itself from the old Rome, with its pope, and its propensity for barbaric invasions.

Dogmatic conflicts and battles for influence that resulted in temporary breaks between the papacy and the Patriarchate resulted in a final schism in 1054, with Rome announcing that the Patriarch of Constantinople had been excommunicated.

The result was two Christian churches, a Western one led by the pope and an Eastern one led by the Patriarch.

The quarrel took a particularly dramatic turn in 1204, during the IVth Crusade, when Latin crusaders seized Constantinople and occupied it for 57 years, forcing the patriarchate into exile in Nicea, today the lakeside town of Iznik, northwest Turkey.

Weakened by the conflict, the Byzantines, heirs to the Eastern Roman Empire, saw from the 11th century their lands eaten away by invading Muslim Turks and disappear when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453.

The Patriarchate remained in the city, renamed Istanbul, and has been at its current site in a monastery at the Phanar district, on the European shore of the Bosphorus, since 1601.

The Orthodox Church of Constantinople observes the Byzantine rite and the liturgy is in Greek.

Its main gripe today is that the Turkish authorities, fearing that this would give it a political stature, refuse to recognize its ecumenic -- that is, universal -- nature.




An Outline of the Theological Dialogue
Between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church


1963 -- Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras declares the Orthodox intention of a serious dialogue at the second Pan-Orthodox Conference of Rhodes.

1964 – Pope Paul VI and Athenagoras meet in Jerusalem.

1964 – In Rome, the document “Unitatis Redintegratio” was created, in which the Roman Catholic Church reaffirmed its commitment to the ecumenical dialogue.

1965 -- The mutual “anathemas: were lifted.

1967 -- Athenagoras I and Paul VI publicly declared the intention of a “dialogue of charity” between the two churches, and a parallel “dialogue of truth” as well.

1979 – Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrius I announce the opening of the theological dialogue between the two churches.

1980 -- The first plenary session of the International Joint Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church met the following spring at the island of Patmos,Greece.

The first theme chosen for study was ecclesiology and its link to the mysteries of the Eucharist and the Trinity.

1982 -- The Joint Commission published its first official common document: “The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in Light of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity” (Munich, Germany)

1987 – The next Joint Commission issued the common document : “Faith, Sacraments and the Unity of the Church” (Bari, Italy)

1988 – The third common document is produced: “The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church” (Valamo, Finland)

1990 -- Work began by the Joint Coordinating Committee on the next common document in Moscow, Russia, “Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church”, but at the request of the Orthodox Church the discussions were stopped in order to address the question of “Uniatism”.

1993 – The Joint Commission issued the common document on “Uniatism: Method of Union of the Past, and Present. Search for Full Communion” (Balamand, Lebanon)

2000 – The Joint Commission met in Baltimore, U.S.A., and discussed a text on “ The Ecclesiological and Canonical Implications of Uniatism”.

2005 - The Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church agree to resume the theological dialogue.

2006 – The Joint Commission met in Belgrade, Serbia and discussed a text entitled: ”The Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church: Conciliarity and Authority in the Church”, at three levels of the Church’s life: local, regional and universal.



Pope and Patriarch offer symbolism,
but don't expect breakthroughs

Posted on Nov 29, 2006
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Istanbul


When Pope Benedict XVI meets today with Patriarch Bartholomew I (to give him his full title, “His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome”), it will mark another stage on the path toward healing the millennium-old rift between Eastern and Western Christianity, an effort that in its modern form dates to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

Experts caution, however, that while the symbolism of the encounter is important, it by no means resolves the outstanding issues keeping the two sides apart – above all, differing conceptions of the power of the pope in a reunified Christian family.

The point of reference for the modern rapprochement between Rome and Constantinople is Dec. 7, 1965, and the joint declaration read out that day by Pope Paul VI at the close of Vatican II and by Patriarch Athenagoras I at a special ceremony in Istanbul. That declaration said that both men “regret and remove both from memory and from the midst of the Church the sentences of excommunication” which followed the split between East and West in 1054.

Both pledged to work toward “that full communion of faith, fraternal accord and sacramental life which existed among them during the first thousand years of the life of the Church.”

The declaration provoked criticism from both some Catholic and Orthodox voices. On the Orthodox side, for example, Metropolitan Philaret wrote a letter of protest to Athenagoras warning against excessive accommodation to Rome.

Despite such criticism, however, relations between the Vatican and the Phanar, the headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul, have become steadily more systematic. Paul VI visited the Phanar July 25-26, 1967, and John Paul came in late November 1979, on the occasion of the patronal feast of the patriarchate, St. Andrew (the brother of Peter). Each year, a Vatican delegation travels to the Phanar to mark their celebrations.

Those visits have been reciprocated by regular visits of the patriarch to Rome, usually on June 29, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Patriarch Dimitrios traveled to Rome in 1987, and Bartholomew came in 1995.

In 2004, Bartholomew actually came to Rome twice, once for the normal visit in June, and again in November to receive relics of St. John Chrysostom and of St. Gregory the Theologian [Nazianzus], revered Eastern fathers, which were returned by Pope John Paul II in a gesture of ecumenical sensitivity.

Following the 2004 encounter between John Paul and Bartholomew, the two men issued a joint statement saying, “Our meeting in Rome today also enables us to face certain problems and misunderstandings that have recently surfaced. The long experience of the ‘dialogue of charity’ comes to our aid precisely in these circumstances, so that difficulties can be faced serenely without slowing or clouding our progress on the journey we have undertaken towards full communion in Christ.”

Generally speaking, when the pope and patriarch meet, they co-preside over a liturgy that features profession of faith according to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in Greek, and at the conclusion, there is a final blessing imparted by both the pope and the patriarch at the Altar of the Confessio. The event stops short, however, of full inter-communion.

Doctrinally, there is relatively little separating Rome and Constantinople. Both recognize the sacraments and ministries of the other, which in theory creates a much more promising base for ecumenical progress than with many churches descended from the Western Reformation.

In reality, however, Catholic/Orthodox relations have long been plagued by problems of a more juridical and political character.

For one thing, the Orthodox harbor deep reservations about the 21 Eastern Rite churches in union with Rome, sometimes called the “Uniate” churches. Discussions in 2004 and 2005 about the possibility of recognizing a patriarch for the 5.5 million-strong Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, for example, elicited strong protests from Constantinople. In general, many Orthodox fear these churches are a sort of “Trojan horse” designed to siphon off Eastern Christians.

As a sign of the premium that recent popes have placed on good relations with the Orthodox, John Paul II bluntly told Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Greek Catholic Church, that he would have to wait. Such moves have led to criticism over the years, both from members of the Eastern Churches who sometimes feel their interests are being sacrificed on the altar of ecumenism, and from “ecumenical hawks” who believe the Catholic Church has gone too far in accommodating Orthodox sensitivities.

More basically, the major remaining obstacle to East/West unity has long been differing conceptions over the power and prerogatives of the pope. Although both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have said that they would insist only upon the role played by the Bishop of Rome in the first millennium, a time when East and West were still formally in communion, even that formula leaves many questions unanswered.

In general, many Orthodox Christians say they are prepared to recognize a sort of “primary of honor” for Rome, but Catholics generally insist that the pope would have to exercise real jurisdictional leadership in any unified Christian church.

A joint commission for theological dialogue between Rome and the Orthodox churches was re-launched earlier this year after a six-year hiatus, following 2000 talks in Baltimore which broke down over the question of the Eastern churches. There is little indication, however, that the commission has brokered significant new agreement on the fundamental questions. For that reason, ecumenical observers say, it would be unrealistic to expect any major breakthroughs on this trip.






[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/11/2006 13.21]

29/11/2006 16:50
 
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THE MESSAGE REMAINS THE SAME!
Here's a somewhat unexpected but very welcome editorial.

A tough pope's tough message
Editorial in Chicago Tribune
Published November 29, 2006


Popes usually travel as parochial emissaries of Roman Catholicism, speaking only for themselves and their church. But with this week's visit to overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI confronts the broad, Pan-Islamic crescent of nations as a tough-minded ambassador from ... well, from the rest of the world, believers and non-believers alike.

The pontiff arrived Tuesday in Ankara as a gracious guest, talking of the need for dialogue among the "brotherhood" of faiths. But he unmistakably also sought to drive a wedge between any one of those faiths and mortal conflict conducted in its name.

He urged that all religious leaders "utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of religion," and voiced his concerns over "recent developments in terrorism and in certain regional conflicts. ... I am thinking of the risk of peripheral conflicts multiplying and terrorist actions spreading."

The pope didn't name names or point fingers. But Benedict's words Tuesday evoked the controversial September lecture in which he alluded to centuries-old allegations that the Prophet Muhammad had wanted Islam to be spread by the sword.

The speech lingers in the memory for that unflattering reference to Islam more than for the overriding "invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect" that Benedict simultaneously advocated. He has expressed regret for the hurt his words caused - but he has never retracted them.

The Turkey trip originated as an outreach to Orthodox Christians who split with Roman Catholicism 1,000 years ago. But the juxtaposition of his September speech with the sectarian strife that divides Muslims in Iraq and beyond forced Benedict to make a choice succinctly framed in the Nov. 27 issue of Time magazine:

"Having thrust himself to the center of the global debate [about Islam and violence] and earned the vilification of the Muslim street, he must weigh hard options. Does he seize his new platform, insisting that another great faith has potentially deadly flaws and daring it to discuss them, while exhorting Western audiences to be morally armed? Or does he back away from further confrontation in the hope of tamping down the rage his words have already provoked?"

Benedict's polite but direct approach Tuesday in Ankara suggested that his trip won't be a retreat from confrontation -from asking Muslims to examine violence committed in Islam's name.

Raising that issue forces the pope to strike a dicey balance. He speaks as the head of a church with its own history of attempting to spread faith and power by force. But that church is now better known for its advocacy of pacifism than for its past militancy. And by repeatedly voicing his opposition to warfare as the solution to geopolitical disputes, the pope should have earned a degree of street cred(ibility) - even in that unhappy Muslim street.

How menacing to Islam, moderate Muslims must wonder, is a 79-year-old German intellectual who thus far has devoted his papacy to decrying the Western secularism that also troubles ... many Muslims?

Yet when Benedict questions the thrust of global Islam, he raises a question that many people of other beliefs, or of no belief, also ask: Will the world's 1 billion peaceful Muslims keep a subset of religious radicals and bloodthirsty terrorists from hijacking their faith?

As this four-day visit plays out, the world will see which outreach Benedict stresses: his yearning, voiced Tuesday, for reconciliation across a religious divide - or the tougher message he also delivered Tuesday in warning that Middle East conflicts show no sign of abating and weigh heavily "on the whole of international life."

But the world also will see how a majority Islamic nation and the Pan-Islamic crescent react after Benedict asserts, as he did Tuesday, that "Peace is the basis of all religions."

Does that proclamation come across to Muslims as a veiled rebuke? Or does it come across as a welcoming embrace?

29/11/2006 17:07
 
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HOMILY AT EPHESUS MASS
Here is the official translation of the Holy Father's homily at the Mass celebrated today at Meryem Ana Evi, "Mary's House", in Ephesus.



Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In this Eucharistic celebration we praise the Lord for Mary’s divine motherhood, a mystery solemnly confessed and proclaimed in Ephesus at the Ecumenical Council of 431.

To this place, so dear to the Christian community, my venerable predecessors the Servants of God Paul VI and John Paul II came as pilgrims; the latter visited this Shrine on 30 November 1979, just over a year after the beginning of his Pontificate.

Another of my Predecessors was in this country not as Pope, but as the Papal Representative, from January 1935 to December 1944, Blessed John XXIII, Angelo Roncalli, whose memory still enkindles great devotion and affection. He very much esteemed and admired the Turkish people.

Here I would like to quote an entry in his Journal of a Soul: "I love the Turks; I appreciate the natural qualities of these people who have their own place reserved in the march of civilization" (pp. 233-4).

He also left to the Church and the world the legacy of his Christian optimism, rooted in deep faith and constant union with God.

In that same spirit, I turn to this nation and, in a special way, to the "little flock" of Christ living in its midst, in order to offer a word of encouragement and to manifest the affection of the whole Church.

With great love I greet all of you here present, the faithful of Izmir, Mersin, Iskenderun and Antakia, and others from different parts of the world, as well as those who could not take part in this celebration but are spiritually united with us.

I greet in particular Archbishop Ruggero Franceschini of Izmir, Archbishop Giuseppe Bernardini, Archbishop emeritus of Izmir, Bishop Luigi Padovese, the priests and the religious. Thank you for your presence, your witness and your service to the Church in this blessed land where, at its very beginnings, the Christian community experienced great growth, a fact reflected in the numerous pilgrimages made to Turkey to this day.

Mother of God – Mother of the Church
We have listened to a passage from Saint John’s Gospel which invites us to contemplate the moment of the Redemption when Mary, united to her Son in the offering of his sacrifice, extended her motherhood to all men and women, and in particular to the disciples of Jesus.

A privileged witness to that event was the author of the Fourth Gospel, John, the only one of the Apostles to remain at Golgotha with the Mother of Jesus and the other women.

Mary’s motherhood, which began with her fiat in Nazareth, is fulfilled at the foot of the Cross. Although it is true – as Saint Anselm says – that "from the moment of her fiat Mary began to carry all of us in her womb", the maternal vocation and mission of the Virgin towards those who believe in Christ actually began when Jesus said to her: "Woman, behold your son!" (Jn 19:26).

Looking down from the Cross at his Mother and the beloved disciple by her side, the dying Christ recognized the first
fruits of the family which he had come to form in the world, the beginning of the Church and the new humanity. For this reason, he addressed Mary as "Woman", not as "Mother", the term which he was to use in entrusting her to his disciple: "Behold your Mother!" (Jn 19:27).

The Son of God thus fulfilled his mission: born of the Virgin in order to share our human condition in everything but sin, at his return to the Father he left behind in the world the sacrament of the unity of the human race (cf. Lumen Gentium, 1): the family "brought into unity from the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Saint Cyprian, De Orat. Dom., 23: PL 4, 536), at whose heart is this new bond between the Mother and the disciple. Mary’s divine motherhood and her ecclesial motherhood are thus inseparably united.

Mother of God – Mother of Unity
The first reading presented what could be called the "Gospel" of the Apostle of the Gentiles: all men and women, including the pagans, are called in Christ to share fully in the mystery of salvation.

The text also contains the expression that I have chosen as the motto for my Apostolic Journey: "He, Christ, is our peace" (Eph 2:14). Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us that Jesus Christ has not only brought us peace, but that he is our peace.

And he justifies this statement by referring to the mystery of the Cross: by shedding "his blood", by offering in sacrifice "his flesh", Jesus destroyed hostility "in himself" and created "in himself one new man in place of the two" (Eph 2:14-16).

The Apostle explains how, in a truly unforeseen way, messianic peace has now come about in Christ’s own person and his saving mystery. He explains it by writing, during his imprisonment, to the Christian community which lived here, in Ephesus: "to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph 1:1), as he says in the salutation of the Letter.

The Apostle wishes them "grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph 1:2). Grace is the power that transforms man and the world; peace is the mature fruit of this transformation. Christ is grace; Christ is peace.

Paul knows that he has been sent to proclaim a "mystery", a divine plan that only in the fullness of time has been carried out and revealed in Christ: namely, that "the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel" (Eph 3:6).

This mystery is accomplished, in salvation history, in the Church, the new People in which, now that the old dividing wall has been broken down, Jews and pagans find themselves united. Like Christ himself, the Church is not only the instrument of unity, but also its efficacious sign. And the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, is the Mother of that mystery of unity which Christ and the Church inseparably signify and build up, in the world and throughout history.

Let us implore peace for Jerusalem and the whole world
The Apostle of the Gentiles says that Christ "has made us both one" (Eph 2:14): these words properly refer to the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the mystery of eternal salvation, yet they can also extend, by analogy, to the relationship between the peoples and civilizations present in the world.

Christ "came to proclaim peace" (Eph 2:17), not only between Jews and non-Jews, but between all nations, since all have their origin in the same God, the one Creator and Lord of the universe.

Strengthened by God’s word, from here in Ephesus, a city blessed by the presence of Mary Most Holy – who we know is loved and venerated also by Muslims – let us lift up to the Lord a special prayer for peace between peoples.

From this edge of the Anatolian peninsula, a natural bridge between continents, let us implore peace and reconciliation, above all for those dwelling in the Land called "Holy" and considered as such by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike: it is the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, destined to be the home of a people that would become a blessing for all the nations (cf. Gen 12:1-3).

Peace for all of humanity! May Isaiah’s prophecy soon be fulfilled: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Is 2:4).

We all need this universal peace; and the Church is called to be not only the prophetic herald, but even more, the "sign and instrument" of this peace. Against the backdrop of universal peace, the yearning for full communion and concord between all Christians becomes even more profound and intense.

Present at today’s celebration are Catholic faithful of various rites, and this is a reason for joyful praise of God. These rites, when they converge in unity and common witness, are an expression of that marvellous variety which adorns the Bride of Christ. In this regard, the unity of the Ordinaries of the Episcopal Conference in fellowship and the sharing of pastoral efforts must set an example.

Magnificat
In today’s liturgy we have repeated, as the refrain of the Responsorial Psalm, the song of praise proclaimed by the Virgin of Nazareth on meeting her elderly kinswoman Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:39). Our hearts too were consoled by the words of the Psalmist: "steadfast love and faithfulness will meet, righteousness and peace will kiss" (Ps 85:10).

Dear brothers and sisters, in this visit 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.

With firm trust let us sing, together with Mary, a magnificat of praise and thanksgiving to God who has looked with favour upon the lowliness of his servant (cf. Lk 1:48).

Let us sing joyfully, even when we are tested by difficulties and dangers, as we have learned from the fine witness given by the Roman priest Don Andrea Santoro, whom I am pleased to recall in this celebration.

Mary teaches us that the source of our joy and our one sure support is Christ, and she repeats his words: "Do not be afraid" (Mk 6:50), "I am with you" (Mt 28:20). Mary, Mother of the Church, accompany us always on our way! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us! Aziz Meryem Mesih’in Annesi bizim için Dua et. Amen.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/11/2006 19.18]

29/11/2006 17:19
 
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Aides breathe sigh of relief after pope's first day in Turkey

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

ANKARA, Turkey (CNS) -- At the end of a long first day in Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI's aides seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The local protests had fizzled. The prime minister had shown up to greet the pontiff after all. And the dialogue with Muslims had been honest and cordial -- at some moments, even friendly.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, was smiling as he strolled into the Ankara press center late Nov. 28 for a briefing. The pope's trip, described by many as a difficult and perhaps dangerous mission, had gotten off to a fine start, he said.

"It seemed to us that in recent days the climate for the visit was rapidly improving. Today we had the sensation that the pope was a welcome guest," Father Lombardi said.

Turkish newspaper headlines the next morning confirmed Father Lombardi's impressions.

"A beautiful beginning," was the main headline across Hurriyet, one of the country's leading dailies. "The pope calls Islam a religion of peace."

The pope smiled from the moment Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met him at the foot of his plane, and the 79-year-old pontiff looked at ease as he worked through a series of five major encounters with government officials, Muslim leaders and diplomats -- considered the most delicate events of the trip.

There was some blunt language at the pope's meeting with Ali Bardakoglu, the head of Turkey's religious affairs directorate and the country's highest Muslim authority.

Bardakoglu warned that "Islamophobia" was being fueled by people who connect Islam with violence, an apparent reference to the pope's speech in Regensburg, Germany, last September. In that speech, the pope had quoted a medieval emperor as saying Islam spread its faith "by the sword," although the pope later distanced himself from the comment.

In Ankara, the pope conveyed his respect for Islam but also re-emphasized that rejection of violence was essential for religions if they want to help shape society with moral values.

It was a frank exchange between the pope and his hosts, but it took place in an atmosphere of respect. Father Lombardi said Bardakoglu's speech was "thorough, positive and respectful, never polemical."

Although no one specifically raised the Regensburg speech with the pope, the issues of Regensburg are not taboo, Father Lombardi said -- in fact, they are part of a deeper dialogue that needs to take place.

The important thing, the Vatican spokesman said, was that his Turkish audience responded positively to the pope's argument that religions need to inspire modern cultures with values, reflecting a harmony between reason and faith.

Other Vatican officials beamed with satisfaction.

"We felt strongly how the Turkish government did everything to warm up the atmosphere. This was a very positive day, especially because the meeting with (Bardakoglu) was very cordial," said retired French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who accompanied the pope as a kind of "wise man" of Vatican diplomacy.

Added Cardinal Walter Kasper: "The dialogues were very positive, and it was a day that expressed peace and reconciliation."

The pope helped stir the favorable reception by declaring his esteem for Muslim believers and describing himself as "a friend and an apostle of dialogue and peace." Those simple statements had a long echo in the Turkish media.

Another big reason Turkey warmed to the pope was that he voiced support to Erdogan for Turkey's efforts to enter the European Union. Erdogan lost no time announcing that fact to the media.

Papal aides later confirmed that while the Vatican has no official position on Turkey and EU membership, the pope did want to encourage Turkey's bid to enter the union "on the basis of shared values." That implied that Turkey would meet various EU criteria before being admitted, including the guarantee of religious rights.

Some were surprised at what appeared to be a turnaround by Pope Benedict. As a cardinal in 2004, he had clearly expressed the idea that culturally and historically, Turkey did not belong to Europe.

On one level, it seemed to demonstrate that papal opinions do not automatically translate into Vatican positions.

But Father Lombardi, in a more nuanced explanation, drew a distinction between Europe as a historical entity and the European Union as a political body. He suggested that the pope's support for Turkey's EU membership, as a way of drawing closer to European values, is different from the historical discussion.

For its part, the Vatican was able to press somewhat on religious freedom issues, especially in a meeting with a Turkish vice prime minister. Father Lombardi said the Turkish authorities agreed in principle to hold talks with church officials on legal, personnel and property issues regarding Catholic communities.

The pope also raised the religious freedom issue in his public speeches -- not as a claim to a "tit for tat" reciprocal arrangement between Christians and Muslims around the world, but in the context of universal rights guaranteed by democratic governments and enshrined in Turkey's Constitution.

The fact that the pope was ignored by much of Turkey's population didn't bother the Vatican officials. They knew the pope would have an impact in Turkey not via the multitudes but through political, cultural and religious leaders.

Father Lombardi explained, with characteristic understatement, why no popemobile was brought to Turkey.

"It seems fairly clear to me that this is not a place where big crowds are gathering to see the pope," he said.

29/11/2006 17:31
 
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Pope Benedict in the lion's den

By Tony Blankley
Washington Times
Editorial
November 29, 2006

Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Turkey was characterized by the Associated Press thusly (in one of their increasingly rare exercises in objective journalism): "Benedict's journey is extraordinarily sensitive, a closely watched pilgrimage full of symbolisms that could offer hope of religious reconciliation or deepen what many say is a growing divide between the Christian and Islamic worlds." While we must hope for the former, it is hard not to expect the latter.

Lamentably, the time is past (if it ever existed) when mere benign expressions of convivial tolerance could have any lasting, positive effect on inter-religious and inter-cultural relations. Pope Benedict well understands the current inefficacy of mere expressions of tolerance unconnected to specific, current Muslim nation practices, whatever he may or may not say on the remainder of this dangerous trip (originally intended as an outreach from the Catholic pope to the Eastern Orthodox Christian patriarch of Constantinople, before it was transformed by events into a Muslim-Christian dominated event.

The Pope believes in the need for deep, honest dialogue, premised on the need for reciprocity between Christians and Muslims. But as a man of honest faith and scholarship he refuses to go beyond where the teachings of his faith can take him.

As former foreign policy advisor to the U.S. Catholic Bishops, John F. Cullinan, pointed out in National Review a few months ago, Pope Benedict recognizes that "Lacking a common spiritual heritage, such as shared between Christians and Jews, purely theological dialogue [with Muslims] is counterproductive and should be subordinated to an examination of how to exist peacefully in a pluralistic world." Thus Benedict sees reciprocity as applicable to attempting to reduce religious-motivated violence and to gaining religious freedom for religious minorities — Christians, Muslims, Jews and all others.

We should not expect such reciprocity soon. Just this Monday two Turkish Christians (Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal) were defendants in a Turkish court accused of violating penal code Article 301 "insulting Turkishness" and Article 216, "inciting hatred against Islam." Their crime was peacefully missionizing on behalf of Christianity.

Similarly, the Pope seeks to correct the imbalance between mosques being built throughout the cities of the West, while any non-Islamic religious expression (let alone church building) is strictly proscribed from Turkey to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan to most other Muslim countries.

There is something courageous but forlorn in Benedict's modest request for reciprocity on these matters. Such minimalist goals of the Pope nonetheless earned him the following characterization by Time Magazine last week: [He is] "carrying a reputation of a hard-knuckle intellect with a taste for blunt talk and inter-religious confrontation." Time went on to write: "Ratzinger [i.e. Pope Benedict XVI] has always favored bright theological lines and correspondingly high walls between creeds he regards as unequally meritorious."

It would seem that the Pope is destined to be a bafflement to secularist because he remains true to his Christian faith, just as he will be despised by many Muslims because he remains true to his Christian faith — even as he reaches out for at least minimal standards of reciprocal respect between the religions of the world.

Though I am not a Catholic, I rather prefer the description of Pope Benedict by the Catholic essayist Michael D. O'Brien (to the silliness of Time Magazine's):

"Benedict is a man of charity and of truth, and rarer still, he is a man who has integrated both within his life and teaching. In a sense he is like St. Francis of Assisi, who in 1219, during the Crusades, walked into the midst of the Saracen camp and preached for days, and eventually spoke with the Sultan of Egypt in the hope of converting him...He was a sign of contradiction to all parties in the wars. He was unarmed. He was a presence of Christ to the major adversary of Christian civilization in those times."

"So, too, Pope Benedict continues to be a sign of contradiction. He has crossed the lines of our normal categories regarding the world situation. He has made possible a dialogue with Islam...He is not naive about the nature of radical Islamics, and indeed his Regensburg speech has been a catalyst of clearer vision about the nature of militant Islamism — its irrationality, its spirit of relentless hatred and contempt for human dignity. Yet we must remember that neither is the Pope naive about the other beast — the one that is killing us from within the parameters of our civilization, the secular humanism of Late Western Man."

Benedict will surely be condemned in both the secular and Muslim media for political sins he has not committed. But if given time, Benedict's stubborn, peaceful witness to his faith both in the lion's den and amidst the non-believers may yet lead the world towards better days.

29/11/2006 17:52
 
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Pope Benedict XVI reaches out to Turkey's 'little flock' of Catholics

By Cindy Wooden
11/29/2006
Catholic News Service

EPHESUS, Turkey (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI asked Turkey's tiny Catholic community to live their faith with courage, hope and optimism.

The pope celebrated the first public Mass of his four-day trip to Turkey Nov. 29 under the shade of pine and olive-laden trees next to the House of the Virgin Mary at Ephesus.

When he addressed the "little flock" of Catholics in Turkey, he was not referring literally to the fewer than 200 people present for the Mass high on a hill over Ephesus, but it felt that way to the congregation.

The Mass in honor of Mary was a brief aside dedicated to Catholics in a trip dominated by outreach to the country's Muslim majority and by celebrations at the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Pope Benedict told those present that he 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."

While the Turkish Constitution recognizes freedom of conscience and religion, including the right to worship, the Catholic Church and other minority religious communities lack full legal recognition and protection. They also can face difficulty in getting visas and residency permits for foreign pastoral workers.

Pope Benedict urged the Catholic community to rejoice even in the midst of difficulties, following the example of Father Andrea Santoro, a missionary from Rome who was murdered in February by a disturbed Muslim youth.

Citing Mary as a mother not only of Christ's disciples but of all men and women, the pope urged Turkey's Catholics to be united among themselves and to build friendships with their Orthodox and Muslim neighbors.

Even if it is a tiny minority, he said, the Catholic Church is called always and everywhere to be "a sacrament of the unity of the human race."

Christ came to proclaim peace, Pope Benedict said.

Pointing out that Muslims also make pilgrimages to the House of the Virgin Mary, that they honor her as a true believer and as the virgin mother of Jesus, the pope urged Turkish Catholics to pray for peace among believers of different religions.

The pope asked for special prayers for the Middle East, "the land called 'holy' and considered as such by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike."

The world needs peace, he said. "And the church is called to be not only the prophetic herald, but even more the 'sign and instrument' of this peace."

Besides priests from all over Turkey, one of the largest groups present at the Mass was comprised of 40 German Catholics and Protestants with holiday homes in Antalya and Alanya, Turkey.

Ingrid Nurbakhsch, a Catholic member of the group, said the fact that the pope is German was not the primary reason for their trip.

"For me, the nationality of the pope is not important. I look at the person," she said. "I came to see Ephesus and to be with the people."

Nurbakhsch said she has never had a problem living as a Catholic in Turkey. "We live with our Muslim neighbors. We are human beings first of all."
29/11/2006 17:54
 
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In an editorial today, Corriere della Sera traces the evolution of Joseph Ratzinger's opposition to Turkey's entry to the European Union into Pope Benedict XVI's favorable view, and how a Vatican statement last weekend may have cleared the way for the Turkish prime minister's meeting with the Pope.

The wheel turns
Editorial
Corriere della Sera
November 29, 2006



Cardinal Ratzinger's opposition to Turkey's entry into the European Union is one proof that he, at that time, had no idea he would ever be Pope.

In August and September of 2004, Ratzinger asrgued that such an entry would be 'anti-historic' and that it would be 'a great error' to proceed.

But when he became Pope, he assumed the 'neutrality' that the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano had declared many times in the name of the Holy See. And yesterday - on the first day of his thorny visit to Turkey, a day that turned out to be 'creative' - he made it known through the Vatican press director that he 'views positively and encourages' Turkey's 'road to integration' in Europe.

Other Vatican views have been diverse in the past. The Secretariat of State was neutral: this is a 'political question' which is for state institutions to decide. The Holy See limited itself to calling attention to the question of religious freedom. Before deciding on Turkey's admission, the European Union should verify the 'compatibility' of the Turkish situation with the principles shared by the other member states.

Behind the official neutrality, there were personal positions: openly in favor were Cardinals Roberto Tucci and Sergio Sebastiani (who was Apostolic Nuncio in Ankara for 10 years). Cardinal Ratzinger was the known oppponent.

The pro-Turkey cardinals pointed out that the Catholic bishops of Turkey as well as the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were in favor of Turkey's integration into the EU. They argued that integration would 'anchor' Turkey to the European democracies and would be a chance for the 'full maturation' of religious freedom in the 'secular' Republic created by Ataturk.

Ratzinger's opposition was historical and cultural: "Europe is not defined solely by geography... History has always placed Turkey and Europe 'against each other', and culture divides them today. For such a partner, one may think of other forms of association, but not entry into the EU."

After the Conclave of 2005, Vatican diplomacy took every effort to convince Ankara that the 'personal ideas' of Cardinal Ratzinger had not become 'the line of the Holy See' with his election as Pope, but that the Pope had assumed the 'neutral' Vatican position.

Not long after he became Pope, Ratzinger expressed his wish to go to Turkey in order to visit the Patriarch of Constantinople. He had hoped to make that trip last year at around this time, for the November 30 Feastt of St. Andrew, patron saint of the Orthodox Church. But it took the Turkish government seven months to come around and make the official invitation.

The bulk of the difficulties these past few weeks, during negotiations for the final itinerary of the trip, were due to a residual diffidence among Turkish officials towards the Pope's actual position on the European question.

But last weekened, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarciso Bertone
expressed pubicly the wish that Turkey "will be able to realize the conditions set by the European community for its integration" into the EU. After that, Prime Minister Erdogan finally announced he would definitely meet the Pope at Ankara airport.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/11/2006 18.08]

29/11/2006 18:16
 
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FIGHTING FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Sandro Magister rightly sees this as main message of Pope Benedict's first day in Turkey.

In Turkey, Benedict XVI
Becomes a Defender of Freedom

And he appeals that “the religions utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence.”
As an example of the “particular charity” between Muslims and Christians, he cites
an Arab prince of the eleventh century, one esteemed by Pope Gregory VII
by Sandro Magister


ROMA, November 28, 2006 – On his first day in Turkey, Benedict XVI did not again quote sura 2:256 of the Qur’an, which he had taken as the launching point for his lecture in Regensburg: “There is no compulsion in religion.”

But it was as if he had referred to it again. In speaking in Ankara, first to the “Diyanet” for religious affairs, and then to the diplomatic corps, pope Joseph Ratzinger placed the question of freedom at the center of both addresses.

In the first of the two addresses, Benedict XVI had before him, among others, the head of religious affairs in Turkey, Ali Bardakoglu, who is one of the harshest critics of his lecture in Regensburg, but also the grand mufti of Istanbul, Mustafa Cagrici, who was one of the signatories of the open letter commenting upon that same lecture, written in mid-October by 38 illustrious Muslims from various countries, and very respectful toward the pope and his reasoning.

In speaking to them, Benedict XVI urged “an authentic respect for the responsible choices that each person makes, especially those pertaining to fundamental values and to personal religious convictions.”

He continued by asserting that “freedom of religion, institutionally guaranteed and effectively respected in practice, both for individuals and communities, constitutes for all believers the necessary condition for their loyal contribution to the building up of society, in an attitude of authentic service, especially towards the most vulnerable and the poor.”

He indicated as the “specific contribution” of religious men and women that of “[helping] society to open itself to the transcendent,” or “[offering] a credible response to the question which emerges clearly from today’s society, even if it is often brushed aside, the question about the meaning and purpose of life, for each individual and for humanity as a whole.”

And “as an illustration of the fraternal respect with which Christians and Muslims can work together,” he cited “some words addressed by Pope Gregory VII in 1076 to a Muslim prince in North Africa who had acted with great benevolence towards the Christians under his jurisdiction. Pope Gregory spoke of the particular charity that Christians and Muslims owe to one another ‘because we believe in one God, albeit in a different manner, and because we praise him and worship him every day as the Creator and Ruler of the world’.”

Later, speaking to the diplomatic corps gathered at the nunciature in Ankara, Benedict XVI recalled that “the Turkish Constitution recognizes every citizen’s right to freedom of worship and freedom of conscience.”

And then he asked that these freedoms be respected in practice, without constraints and violence:

“The civil authorities of every democratic country are duty bound to guarantee the effective freedom of all believers and to permit them to organize freely the life of their religious communities. [...] This assumes, of course, that religions do not seek to exercise direct political power, as that is not their province, and it also assumes that they utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of religion.”

In these last words as well, the reference to the lecture in Regensburg is clear. There, too, the pope indicated “human dignity” as the terrain of common action for Christians and Muslims, and more precisely “a human point of reference, when it relates to birth, education, manner of life or work, of old age, or death,” explaining that “the extraordinary development of science and technology” is directed toward this end.

The pope concluded by quoting the letter of Paul to the Galatians (5:13): “You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.”

29/11/2006 19:06
 
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ISSUE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SPILLS INTO PRESS ACCREDITATION
A reporter covering the Papal visit for korazym. org reports.

The battle of the press passes
By Matteo Spicuglia

ISTANBUL (korazym.org) - The relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Contantinople and the Turkish state are practically non-existent. Therefore, even the organization of a Press Room for the hundreds of journalists who simply want to carry out their jobs efficiently has become a politico-diplomatic case.

The problem first reared itself on the eve of the papal visit, when the nationalist Turkish press accused the government of having allowed the Hilton Hotel to be transformed into a church.

The reference was to a press center that the Patriarchate and thw Holy See had set up in one of the hotel's large conference halls which has facilities for news conferences, wireless internet, work tables, television monitors to follow events, information and other helful services, as well as snacks.

In short, a workplace for the correspondents sent from around the world (more than a thousand were accredited) to do what they hav to do without having to arrange all these logistics individually themselves. [A press center usch as this is usualy established as an SOP by the host government during a state or official visit by another head of state.]

This became necessary because Turkish authorities made it known they would not be providing such a facility - not in Ankara, Ephesus or even Istanbul.

So the Patriarchate, in collaboration with the Vatican, decided to take on the responsibility - both to help the communications media function more efficiently, as well as to take advantage of the high media visibility of the papal visit.

They were then accused of going beyond bounds, from the point of view of Turkish authorities, because the Press Center had its own accreditation system, independent of that reqiured by the Turkish government. Because of the official objections, the 'accreditation' has been downgraded to mere registration.

However, the Patriarchate press center also issued its own 'passes'- illustrated by the Patriarchate's official logo for the papal visit, which carries the pictures of the Pope and the Patriarch and describes the trip as an apostolic voyage, rather than the 'official visit to Turkey' stated in the passes issued by the Turkish government to visiting newsmen.



Textually, the Patriarchate pass is issued for the "Papal Voyage to the Ecumenical Patriarchate" from November 29-December 1. This obviously excludes the Pope's day in Ankara, which was devoted to meeting with the civilian authorities of Turkey. It was seen as another way in which the Patriarchate expresses its sense of independence.

The Patriarchate pass serves exclusively for access to the Press Center at the Hilton. Everywhere else, the journalist must have a pass issued by the General Directorate for the Press and Information in Ankara.



The Patriarchate has advised newsmen not to display its pass once they leave the hotel to avoid any unnecessary problems. "If you are going to the airport for the Pope's arrival, all you need to show is your government pass."

In addition, starting the morning of today, the 29th, newsmen are required to show both passes (Patriarchate and government) to get into the Press Center, even though this is strictly a private undertaking.

It is a game of weights and counterweights, of skirmish and tension, in an environment that is inhrently difficult: In Turkey, Bartholomew I is not recognized whether as a religious authority ("He is considered less than the ordinary citizen") nor as Patriarch of Constantinople (at best, only of the Phanar, the group of Orthodox buildings around the Cathedral of St. George).

The Orthodox Church, along with other religious minorities in Turkey, is always fighting to have the right to act in accordance with freedom of religion. The problem of the press passes is a minor things that will be gone in a few days, but the road to true religious freedom in Turkey is very much uphill.

29/11/2006 19:28
 
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DAY-2: THE POPE ARRIVES IN ISTANBUL
Pope tends his 'little flock'
on second day of Turkey visit

Richard Owen, Ephesus
The Times of London



Ankara and the Vatican breathed a joint sigh of relief today as Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Istanbul for the last leg of his four day trip after holding a mass at a Marian shrine on a hillside at Ephesus - the only open air event of the journey and the most dangerous for him.

The Pope honoured a priest murdered in Turkey, and offered encouragement to the hardpressed Catholic minority in Turkey, where a number of priests have been attacked.

Both Turkish and Vatican officials had privately conceded that the mass, at the House of the Virgin Mary - where the mother of Jesus is traditionally held to have died - was the point at which the Pope would be "most exposed to danger" from Islamic extremists.

Police marksmen watched from the surrounding woodland, helicopters clattered overhead, and only Vatican-accredited journalists were allowed to join the tiny congregation.

Turkey remains on high alert for the Pope's stay in Istanbul on Thursday and Friday, when he is due to visit both the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia (Haghia Sophia), once a mosque and cathedral but now a museum.

At the mass, attended by a few hundred, the Pope referred to Turkey's Christian community as "a small minority which faces many challenges and difficulties daily". He paid tribute to Father Andrea Santoro, an Italian priest murdered at the altar of his church in February.

But the Pope's overall tone was upbeat, with the Vatican determined to build on the positive mood created at the outset of the trip on Tuesday by papal concessions over both Europe and Islam.

In a reversal of the stand he took as cardinal he said he "favoured" Turkey's bid for EU membership, and also called for Christian-Muslim reconciliation, noting that Muslims and Christians "worship the one God, though in different ways".

Resplendent in gold robes with a green embroidered mitre on a platform decorated with white and yellow flowers - the Vatican colours - he appealed to the Virgin Mary to grant peace in the Middle east and around the world, noting that she was venerated by Muslims as well. "Let us sing joyfully, even when we are tested by difficulties and dangers" he said.

The congregation - one of the smallest any Pope has ever addressed - did their best to make up for lack of numbers, shouting "Benedetto" and waving Vatican and Turkish flags. The Pope appeared to have a slight cold and coughed frequently.

Some of those at the mass were British expats from the nearby resort of Kusadasi. "We don't have any problems with our Muslim neighbours" said Nicole Richards, cradling her nine week old daughter Ioni.

Susan Rees, who runs a restaurant with her husband in Kusadasi, and her friend Jane Moulding, told the Times they were "Church of England if anything - but we wanted to show our support for Christian and Muslim coexistence".

The theory that the Virgin Mary died at Ephesus, near Izmir, stems from the Acts of the Apostles, in which Jesus instructs St John as he is dying on the cross to treat Mary as his own mother. Tradition holds that St John spread the Gospel in Asia Minor, taking Mary with him. A rival claim however is made for a "tomb of Mary" in Jerusalem.

The Pope prayed inside the domed stone house, built in the seventh century over the ruins of a first century dwelling. Catholic scholars discovered the house, set by a spring in a dip in the hills and shaded by plane trees and pines, after it was seen in a vision by Sister Catherine Emmerich, a nineteenth century mystic beatified by John Paul II two years ago.

The early Christian community at Ephesus was used as a base by St Paul, and was later the site of the Third Ecumenical Council in AD 431, which gave Mary the title "Mother of God".

The Pope today held the first of several meetings with Bartholomew 1, the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch of Istanbul and spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians, pledging to work for "the full unity of Catholics and Orthodox". The two denominations have been split since an eleventh century schism.

The Patriarch will be looking to the Pope for backing over the Orthodox Church's complaints that the secular Turkish state denies it juridical and property rights and has closed its main seminary.


Pope meets world Orthodox leader
By BBC News

Pope Benedict XVI is meeting Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Turkey, on the second day of a landmark visit to the largely Muslim country. The Istanbul talks with the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians aim to heal an old rift.

Earlier, the Pope held Mass near a shrine to the Virgin Mary in the ancient western city of Ephesus.

The four-day visit to Turkey has been overshadowed by comments the Pope made in September about Islam.

The meeting with Bartholomew - who heads a community of some 250 million Christians around the world - was the original reason for the pontiff's decision to travel to Turkey.

The two leaders were expected to seek rapprochement between Christianity's Eastern and Western rites, estranged for nearly 1,000 years.

In Istanbul, Benedict will also meet faith leaders and visit the city's famous Blue Mosque.

He is scheduled to lead Mass in a cathedral before he departs.

The service in Ephesus was the only open-air Mass Pope Benedict was to say in Turkey, for a congregation of some 500 Catholics brought to the shrine by special invitation.

The Pope visited the small stone house set in the lush green hillside where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last days. It is visited every year by tens of thousands of pilgrims.

He also honoured the memory of a Roman Catholic priest who was killed amid Muslim anger over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

There is only a tiny Catholic community left in Turkey and many in the congregation were foreigners who live in the country and some had travelled from the Mediterranean coast for the occasion.

From there, the Pope travelled to Istanbul, once - as Constantinople - the centre of the Byzantine empire, but now the largest city in a secular Turkish republic.

On Tuesday, Pope Benedict called for an "authentic dialogue" between Christians and Muslims in a speech at Turkey's directorate of religious affairs.

He said the exchange must be "based on truth and inspired by a sincere wish to know one another better".


The BBC also provides us with this very useful map:


- Kosovo is an overwhelmingly Muslim province of Serbia, pushing for independence.
- In Lviv and other western parts of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church predominates - a church that follows Eastern rites but vows allegiance to Rome.
- Republika Srpska is the Serb part of Bosnia.
- Cyprus is divided between the Greek, Orthodox south and the breakaway Turkish, Muslim north.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/11/2006 19.37]

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