c. 2006 Religion News Service
ISTANBUL, Turkey _ Pope Benedict XVI met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the embattled spiritual leader for Eastern Orthodox Christians, and celebrated Mass for his “tiny flock” of Turkish Roman Catholics on Wednesday (Nov. 29) in a show of solidarity with Turkey’s beleaguered Christian minorities.
Departing from the conciliatory overtures that marked his arrival in Turkey on Tuesday, Benedict shifted gears on the second day of his closely watched visit, resuming his push for more religious freedom for Christian minorities living in predominantly Muslim countries.
Arriving at a Christian pilgrimage site on the Aegean Sea, where tradition holds that the Virgin Mary passed her final years, Benedict celebrated a solemn outdoor Mass before 250 guests, expressing support for his “tiny flock” of Turkish Catholics.
“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.
Benedict cited the death of an Italian missionary on Turkish soil in February as a sign of the “dangers” facing Turkey’s Roman Catholics. The Rev. Andrea Santoro was gunned down in his parish on the coast of the Black Sea while kneeling in prayer. The teenaged gunman later claimed to have been driven to violence by the lampooning of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in the Danish press.
Later in the day, Benedict traveled to Istanbul for a private meeting with Bartholomew. The status of the Eastern Orthodox leader remains a source of deep tension in Turkish society. His church, which predates the founding of modern Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, has frequently been the target of right-wing nationalist and Islamic critics who accuse Bartholomew of trying to establish an enclave on Turkish soil similar to Vatican City.
“We are … successors to the thrones of Rome,” Bartholomew said, greeting Benedict.
Benedict’s push to strengthen ties with the Eastern Orthodox has long been the official purpose of his visit to Turkey. That focus, however, has been largely overshadowed in the media by his relations with Islam in the wake of remarks he made in September that angered Muslims around the world.
Benedict now faces a delicate balancing act to lend support to Turkey’s Christians without alienating its Muslim majority and further exacerbating tensions between the Vatican and Islam.
On Wednesday, the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq posted a searing condemnation of the pope on its Web site.
“The Pope’s visit, in fact, is to consolidate the crusader campaign against the lands of Islam,” the posting said. The group also accused the pope of trying to drive Turkey, once a “stronghold” of Islam, “into the arms of the European Union.”
Benedict won high marks from Turkey’s public after Prime Minister Recep Erdogan told the media that the pontiff had expressed support for the country’s entry into the European Union on Tuesday.
Turkey’s national daily Millyet hailed the gesture, saying it debunked the myth of the EU as an exclusively “Christian club.”
Malike Yuksel, a Muslim Turk who attended the Mass on the Aegean Coast, described the pontiff as “a wonderful man” who she said “brought words of peace.” Beyond the ceremony’s secluded grounds, located at the end of a windy dirt road, security forces patrolled a thick forest.
(Scott Rank reported from Istanbul; Stacy Meichtry reported from Rome)
KRE/PH END RANK/MEICHTRY
