This seems to be a tough time for a visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, a country where many Muslims are still enraged over remarks he made in September regarding Islam. We hope the result of his four-day mission is one of healing.
The pontiff arrives amid ultra-heavy security and protests by Islamic radicals who would rather he not show his face in a country where 99 percent of the population is Muslim.
In a September college address in Bavaria, the pope quoted a 14th century Christian ruler of what is now Turkey, who wrote that the prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam, had brought the world nothing but “evil and inhuman” things, spreading his religion by the sword. The speech sparked worldwide protests. Churches were attacked. A nun in Somalia was killed, as was a priest in Turkey.
It wasn’t the first time he angered the Turks. In 2004, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope said that Turkey should not be admitted as a member of the European Union because Turkey had always been “in permanent contrast to Europe.” Turkey, with its secular government, Western-looking intelligentsia and longtime membership in NATO, began talks in October in hopes of gaining EU membership. Many EU officials would welcome Turkey’s membership as a step toward bridging the suspicions between western Europe and the Islamic nations to the east.
The pope did not offer an explicit apology for his September remarks. Rather, he said he was sorry for the violent reactions. Since then, he has made several efforts to appease Muslims, including holding a private papal audience for Muslim ambassadors and a highly publicized message of unity for Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. He is considering making a visit to the Blue Mosque, a prominent Muslim place of worship. It is critical that Benedict use his best diplomatic skills to demonstrate his respect for Islam as one of the world’s great religions.
On Sunday, about 25,000 Turks denounced the pope as an enemy of Islam at a protest in Istanbul, the ancient Christian capital of Constantinople where Benedict plans to meet the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians. The pope was invited to Turkey by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in an effort to strengthen relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Christians.
Religions often have competing interests, and the circumstances suggest that the Pope’s visit to Turkey will be particularly tense. Nonetheless, we hope it opens an avenue for dialogue between the Vatican and the Orthodox Christians, and between the Vatican and the Muslim world.
