euro|topics - The Pope's perilous visit to Turkey

Main focus of Monday, November 27, 2006

The Pope's perilous visit to Turkey

Benedict XVI is expected in Turkey on Tuesday, November 28th, for a four-day visit. It has been two months since Turkey harshly criticised the Pope for including in a speech certain historical references considered offensive to the Muslim religion. The press ponders the scope of this trip that should also allow Benedict XVI to tighten links between Roman and Orthodox Churches.

La Vanguardia - Spain

"Benedict XVI's visit is not the first to be paid by a pope to Turkey", recalls the daily in its editorial. "Paul VI went there in 1967 and set off a crisis by kneeling before St Sophie, which had successively been a basilica, a mosque and a secular museum. John Paul II travelled to Istanbul in 1979. These visits had not been easy either, but today's international situation is very different. Courageously, the Pope has not however given up this challenge that is proving far more risky, on both a spiritual and a physical level, to such an extent that the Turkish secret services are suggesting that Benedict XVI and his cardinals wear bullet-proof jackets. This trip is a challenge for the Pope, but also for the authorities of a country that wishes to become a member of the European Union." (27/11/2006)

Le Monde - France

For the journalist Henri Tincq, a specialist on religions, Benedict XVI's speech in Regensburg "had the merit of re-opening debate on faith, reason and the seeds of violence planted in all religions. Muslim intellectuals have seized it. ... For them, to re-open the doors of 'Ijtihad', the interpretation of sacred texts, is no longer a taboo subject. ... The Pope's trip to Turkey is therefore both a risk and a precious opportunity. The risk is that tension will become worse if Benedict XVI makes any statements that are once again judged provocative, or if the nationalist Islamists manifest their impatience. But the opportunity is equally there for a new understanding between Christianism and Islam in a secular Muslim country which 20th century experience has revealed to be, despite its crises and repression, democratically and secularly soluble." (27/11/2006)

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany

From the Vatican's point of view, Pope Benedikt XVI's vist to Turkey is an attempt to narrow the rift between the Roman Catholic and the orthodox churches. The German-born Cardinal Walter Kasper, who works in the Curia, explains in an interview with Daniel Deckers: "It has been five hundred years since the last meeting between a Pope and an ecumenical patriarch... This visit is intended to send the message that the church of the East and the church of the West have decided to continue on the path towards reconciliation and achieve complete harmony. The conflicts of the globalised world are forcing Christians closer together, but they are also discovering the things they have in common with Islam and the secularised world. The rapprochement between the churches of the East and the West can also serve to promote the integration of Eastern and Western Europe." (27/11/2006)

The Times - United Kingdom

"To its credit, Turkey has rejected calls to cancel the visit", comments the daily . "But it has been made doubly controversial by Benedict's opposition, voiced before becoming Pope, to Turkey's membership of the EU, saying it did not belong there because of its religion and culture. ... This has spurred a virulent nationalism that denounces all attempts to integrate with the West. On the EU issue, the Pope is mistaken, and should at least signal that he does not believe the two cultures are fundamentally incompatible. ... Christians there number only a few thousand, and suffer increasing harassment, including prosecutions for attempted proselytising and concocted charges against Muslim converts to Christianity. After a split of more than 1,000 years, any rapprochement with Orthodoxy will be testing. To achieve this against a background of rising Muslim suspicion will demand all Benedict's tact, adroitness and humility." (27/11/2006)

» To the complete press review of Monday, November 27, 2006

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