MESSAGE FROM THE PONTIFF

The three-day visit to Turkey by the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis I, may be called historic without any exaggeration. It fully corresponds to the officially declared aim of getting inter-religious dialogue going, since events took place during the visit, which may be considered, within the context of an Orthodox-Catholic rapprochement, as the achievement of an inter-confessional agreement between Christianity and Islam.

Francis I is the fourth Pope to make a visit to Turkey, one of the major and most influential countries in the Islamic world, but orientated on involvement with equal rights in the Euro-Atlantic community. Paul VI visited Turkey in 1967. Twelve years later John Paul II visited the country,and in 2006 Benedict XVI made a visit.

The Pope's special interest in Turkey is easily explained. Although it is a country with a primarily Muslim population, it combines in its cultural and historical heritage huge strata of both Islamic and Christian civilisation. The main centre of world Orthodox Christianity is precisely in Turkey's Istanbul (Constantinople until 1453); paths from Western Roman Catholic Christianity parted almost 1,000 years ago. It was fully to be expected that the talks between Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Constantinople, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I were the central event of the Pope's Turkish trip.

In May this year Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew, who had met in Israel, agreed to apply every effort to overcome the split between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. A new step was taken along this path in Istanbul. The Pope and the Archbishop of Constantinople signed a joint ecumenical declaration envisaging a rapprochement between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This took place immediately after a divine liturgy had been held by the Pope in the patriarch's church of St. George in Istanbul.

It is noteworthy that the liturgy was held on Sunday, 30 November, on the Feast Day of Saint Andrew the Apostle, who is regarded as the protector of Patriarch Bartholomew. On this day, the Catholic Pontiff, addressing the Orthodox congregation, stated: "The only thing that the Catholic Church desires and I am seeking as its head is unity with the Orthodox Church." Pope Francis also stressed that unity between Catholic and Orthodox believers had become even more pressing owing to the conflicts in the Middle East, in which Christians were suffering.

Assessing the situation in the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Syria which are in the grips of war, occupied one of the most important places in the joint ecumenical declaration of Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew. These heads of their churches discussed the attacks of the Islamic State on Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. In general, Pope Francis paid particular attention to this subject during his visit to Turkey. "Fanaticism and fundamentalism, just like irrational fears, have facilitated a lack of understanding and discrimination and should be combated with the help of the solidarity of all believers," Pope Francis stated in his speech at the residence of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Pope spoke highly of Turkey's assistance in accepting more than 1.5m refugees from Syria on its territory.

In his turn, Turkish President Erdogan stressed the attention to the problem of Islamophobia in the Western world. He condemned the equating of Islam to terrorism and extremism and called for "working out a solution together to put an end to that". At the same time, Erdogan accused such terrorist groupings as "Islamic State" and "Boko Haram" of bringing Islam into disrepute and also condemned "state terrorism" in Syria. The policy of double standards being implemented by the West came in for criticism too. In particular he recalled the activity of the Kurdish terrorists. 

 "Nobody has particularly noticed how many years blood has be spilled in Turkey in the confrontation with the Workers' Party of Kurdistan. Attacks are occurring on mosques, and there is little reaction to that. This is a policy of double standards, which is destroying people's faith in fairness," Erdogan stated. Moreover not only condemnation of the negative processes in the Middle East were characterised by significant statements made during the Pope's visit to Turkey. They touched upon the need for a constructive dialogue between Islam and Christianity based on mutual respect and friendship. In this sense, the Pope's visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet) and the Church of Saint Sophia (an Orthodox cathedral in the past, then turned into a mosque, and now a museum complex) were indicative.

In the Blue Mosque Pope Francis prayed together with the Mufti of Istanbul Rahmi Yaran, for unity among believers. They prayed together after Mufti Yaran read some verses from the Qoran about the life of Mariam (the Virgin Mary) - the mother of Jesus Christ.

It is obvious that the traditional monotheistic religions are allies in the struggle being experienced in the present age against the most terrible challenges. In the main, Islam and Christianity can have common responses to social problems, environmental catastrophes, moral degradation, war and conflicts and other challenges, just as their evaluations of political, social and cultural trends in the contemporary world are the same for the main branches of Christianity, the Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) churches. In this respect, the speech Pope Francis made to the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on the eve of his visit to Turkey is significant.

The Pope did not make a comforting diagnosis of the Old World: Today's Europe, he stated, is a fading civilisation, and its so-called new values are not taking it anywhere. According to Pope Francis, the worn-out, tired old woman of Europe has lost her roots, has moved away from the principles of peace and cooperation. The great ideals which inspired Europe, the Pope stressed, appear to have lost their force of attraction. Distrust is in the institutions of the European Union is growing. The laws that have been adopted by it are simply of no good to some peoples, even might be said to be damaging.

The Pontiff's words conceal his disagreement with the liberal absolute power in Europe which is accompanied by a lack of belief, the negation of many-century-long cultural traditions, the rejection of family values, the cult of pseudo- freedom releasing people from moral restraint and the very concept of sin. The positions of both the Catholic and Orthodox branches of Christianity, as well as of Christianity and Islam, coincide in their assessment of these phenomena. It is no accident that, in summing up the talks with Pope Francis, Turkish President Erdogan noted that there were no subjects on which they were not of the same opinion. "After the conversation with highly respected Pope Francis, it turns out that we think the same on almost all problems. This applies to the fight against terrorism and the problems of the hegemony of money in the world," Erdogan stated.

Yet another important summary by the Turkish leader in connection with the visit to his country by the Pope was the following: "This visit is exceptionally important for our region. It will make a big contribution to peace. I feel sure that the messages of Pope Francis will not only get through to those who confess Islam, but also the followers of Christianity. Recognition of this type will undoubtedly be confirmation of the fact that inter-civilisation and inter-religious dialogue have a chance of historical success owing to awareness of general goals and the striving by the followers of the major monotheistic religions.