Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Benedict XVI Will Visit Turkey This Year

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Benedict XVI Will Visit Turkey This Year

    BENEDICT XVI WILL VISIT TURKEY THIS YEAR

    Sunday - Catholic Weekly, Poland
    May 10 2006

    The news about the murder of Father Santoro in Trabzon, Turkey,
    was released together with the announcement of the official visit of
    Benedict XVI to Turkey. The head of the office of Turkish President
    Ahmet Necdet Sezer told the paper 'Hurriyet' that the Pope would
    visit the country on 28 November 2006. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Vatican
    spokesman, confirmed that information, adding that the visit would last
    three days, on 28-30 November. This date is not accidental since the
    Pope intends to see Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I on the feast of
    St. Andrew. The Pope, the Bishop of Rome, is the head of the Catholic
    Church, on the Chair of St Peter, whereas the Orthodox Patriarch
    of Constantinople, on the Chair of St Andrew, is the honorary head
    among the Orthodox patriarchs, he is primus inter pares - a first
    among equals.

    The Pope wanted to make the trip last year because Bartholomew I
    had invited the Pope to join him for the celebration of that feast
    day at the beginning of his pontificate. Unfortunately, the Turkish
    government thwarted the trip, which had to be postponed (popes visit
    other countries only when they are invited by the local church and
    the government).

    Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey will not be a precedent. Paul VI and
    John Paul II visited the country, too. Paul VI went to the country on
    the Bosporus in 1967, his main aim being to meet Patriarch Atenagoras
    who was a sincere promoter of the ecumenical dialogue. Paul VI had had
    the occasion to meet him in Jerusalem three years earlier. Apart from
    the meeting with the patriarch Paul VI had meetings with the local
    Catholic and Assyrian communities, the Armenian Patriarch Kalustian
    and the representatives of the Jewish community.

    John Paul II went to Turkey in the second year of his pontificate
    in 1979. He spent three days there, from 28 to 30 November, and
    he met Dimitrios I, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch (the result
    of the encounter was the joint declaration to appoint a mixed
    Catholic-Orthodox commission on theological dialogue). John Paul II
    visited Ephesus and Smyrna, the ancient cities that played a great
    role in the early Church. On the occasion of that visit the Turkish
    press published a letter of some Ali Agca who said he would kill John
    Paul II.
Working...
X