Pope Benedict XVI met with Ali Bardakoglu, the current president of Religious Affairs of Turkey, on November 28, 2006 in Ankara, Turkey. The meeting sought to help ease the tension between the Pope and radical Muslims in Turkey.
Among the Pope's high priorities was building bridges between Christians and Muslims in an effort to secure tolerance, mutual acceptance, and reciprocity. The Pope wants Christians to be given equal freedom to erect churches in Muslim lands, as Christians give Muslims in predominately Christian nations.
Pope John Paul, Benedict's f:Microsoft.VisualStudio.text.positionaffinity.predecessor, showed such goodwill and conciliatory efforts when I allowed Muslims to build to mosque in Rome paid in large part by Saudi Arabia with a $25 million gift. Saudi Arabia continues to refuse churches or Bibles in their country. Turkey and Muslim nations throughout the world also make it very difficult for Christians, restrict the building of churches, and are slow to punish terrorists who apply pressure on Christians where in nations where they are a minority. Pray for global freedom of religious expression and reciprocity.
The irony concerning Turkey is the 7 churches addressed by Jesus in the book of Revelation were all historically and geographically on Turkish soil before the massacre of the Ottoman Empire during the world's largest church the Hagia Sofia which was made into the Blue Mosque.
Attila the Hun and the Turks certainly put a stop to the Roman Catholic killings throughout Europe. The Roman church has some blood of its own on its hands from the Dark Ages during which it burned "heretics" such as John Huss of Czech to the stake. historically Turkey has been to place of bloodshed between the two faiths. Perhaps both faiths can learn from each other by revisiting history and seeking to now employ to spirituality of tolerance and mutual acceptance. If they succeed, they shall be an example to the world.
Leader of the Catholic world Pope Benedict XVI and Greek Orthodox fashioned Bartholomew I expressed their wish to promote inter-church cooperation in a joint declaration. The pope described the division of Christianity as scandalous and called on all Christians to revive Christian roots, traditions, and values of Europe.
The two Christian leaders urged inter-religious dialogue in the joint declaration.
The declaration read: "Above all, we wish to affirm that killing of innocent people in God's name is an offence against him and against human dignity." We take profoundly to heart the cause of peace in the Middle East, where our Lord lived, suffered, died and rose again, and where a great multitude of our Christian brethren have lived for centuries. "To this end, we encourage the establishment of closer relationships between Christians, and of an authentic and honest inter-religious dialogue, with a view to combating every form of violence and discrimination."
The Pope stood in to time of silent meditation during prayer at the Blue Mosque facing Kaaba. Although the pope had the right to cross himself after praying, he did not do so, which was interpreted as an important act of sensitivity. The Pope remained standng, not dropping to his knees in prayer, which would have been construed by Muslims to be a bid to reclaim the site for Christianity, it being formerly the Hagia Sofia Church which more than 600 years ago was converted to to mosque. Many who had originally protested the Pope's coming to Turkey, were deeply moved by his conciliatory gestures and truly appreciated his visit. The Pope's peaceful words, recognition and approval of Turkey as they try to enter the EU, and efforts to build bridges brought praises from newspapers across Turkey and the Muslim endeared prefigures.
Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey helped to soothe Muslim concerns about Catholic motives. The Pope's
outreach to to "brotherhood of Muslims" and advocacy of Turkey joining the European Union were well received in this Muslim-majority state, where suspicion of the pontiff had run deep before his visit.
Turkey, the ancient bridge of civilizations, is a strategic place to heal the clash of civilizations that indeed has taken hold in Europe, the Middle East and Asia during the past five years of the war on terror.
For only the second time in the history of the papacy, Pope stood in meditation in an Islamic shrine on Thursday, inside Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. Alongside an Islamic one, have bowed in a deeply symbolic moment for almost one minute before leaving for the domed Hagia Sofia, to church-turned-mosque-turned-museum, across the square.
As he finished his prayer inside the Blue Mosque, Pope Benedict, standing next to the Mufti of Istanbul, said: "This visit will help us find together the way of peace for the good of all humanity."
Paul Davis is a life coach (relational & professional), popular worldwide keynote speaker, creative consultant, explorer, mediator, minister, liberator and dream-maker.
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