Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Turkish Christian Population Remains Steady

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

  • Turkish Christian Population Remains Steady

    TURKISH CHRISTIAN POPULATION REMAINS STEADY
    by Martin Barillas

    Spero News
    Nov 27 2006

    Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, Vatican prefect of the Congregation for
    Eastern Churches, spoke on Vatican Radio November 23rd and said that
    the number of Christians living in Turkey is holding steady at 30,000.

    Cardinal Daoud said that Catholic and other Christian communities
    are diverse on the Anatolian peninsula. For example, there are two
    Latin-rite bishops in Turkey, two Armenian Catholic prelates, as well
    as patriarchal vicars for Syrian Catholics and Chaldean Catholics.

    Catholics of the Maronite and Byzantine rites are also notable.

    Turkey, Cardinal said, is the cradle of Christianity, having witnessed
    early councils such as Nicea (in 325 AD and 787 AD), Ephesus (431 AD),
    Chalcedon (451), and Constantinople (381 AD, 553 AD, 680 AD and 870
    AD). It is "a privileged place for the implantation of Christianity",
    said the cardinal, that saw "the flowering of theologies and of rites"
    that gives its rich mosaic of Christianity today. At Ephesus is found
    a small house where, according to tradition, lived the Virgin Mary
    after the death and resurrection of Jesus that remains a place of
    pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims.

    Cardinal Daoud will join Pope Benedict XVI on the latter's visit to
    the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople and to Turkey, along with
    Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, President of
    the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper,
    President of the Pontifical Council for Culture Cardinal Paul Poupard,
    and retired Vatican diplomat Cardinal Roger Etchegary.

    The cardinal said that he hopes that Turkey will remain a place of
    "fraternal dialogue between religions and cultures." In addition,
    the cardinal said "Turkey calls to mind in a special way the memory
    of Our Lady and the Apostles."

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X