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Walk in harmony with Muslims, pope urges Christians at pilgrimage

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  • Walk in harmony with Muslims, pope urges Christians at pilgrimage

    Catholic Online, CA
    Dec 1 2006

    Walk in harmony with Muslims, pope urges Christians at pilgrimage end


    By John Thavis
    12/1/2006
    Catholic News Service

    ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNS) - Closing out a four-day pilgrimage of
    dialogue in Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass with the tiny
    Christian community in Istanbul and encouraged it to live in harmony
    with the Muslim majority.


    POPE RELEASES DOVE OUTSIDE TURKISH CATHEDRAL - Pope Benedict XVI
    releases a dove Dec. 1 during a visit to the Cathedral of the Holy
    Spirit in Istanbul, Turkey, on the final day of his four-day visit to
    the Muslim country. (CNS/Reuters)
    "Brothers and sisters, your communities walk the humble path of daily
    companionship with those who do not share our faith, yet profess to
    hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us adore the one,
    merciful God," the pope said in a sermon.

    "You know well that the church wishes to impose nothing on anyone,
    and that she merely asks to live in freedom, in order to reveal the
    one whom she cannot hide, Christ Jesus," he said.

    About 300 people packed into the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit for the
    Dec. 1 Mass. Several hundred more stood in the cathedral's inner
    plaza and in the courtyard of a nearby church, following the liturgy
    on a TV screen.

    Turkey has only 32,000 Catholics in a population of 72 million. Most
    of them live in Istanbul, which has for centuries been a bridge to
    the West.

    The pope, wearing red vestments to mark the work of the Holy Spirit,
    processed into the small church and listened as Armenian Catholics
    chanted the entrance song. A Chaldean choir of youths, dressed in
    blue tunics, sang a hymn in Aramaic.

    The seven languages used in the liturgy were meant to express the
    diversity of the Catholic community in Turkey.

    The pope paid tribute to this rich variety, asking Turkish Catholics
    to continue to live the faith in a humble manner with a sense of
    service to others.

    "To live by the Spirit is not to live for oneself alone, but to let
    oneself be conformed to Christ Jesus by becoming, like him, the
    servant of his brothers and sisters," he said.

    As a minority in a Muslim country, he said, Catholics should be
    attentive to all those who seek justice, peace and dignity.

    "Live in harmony, in accordance with the words of the Lord: 'By this
    everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for
    one another,'" he said.

    To one side of the altar sat Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch
    Bartholomew of Constantinople, who had hosted the pope the day before
    in a liturgy at his Istanbul headquarters, the ecumenical focus of
    the pope's visit.

    The pope recalled that his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in a Mass
    26 years earlier in the same cathedral, had urged new efforts for
    full Christian unity. Unfortunately, Pope Benedict said, that hope
    has not yet been realized, but "the pope still longs to see it
    fulfilled."

    He urged all Christian leaders to act for the good of all, "putting
    ecumenism at the forefront of our ecclesial concerns and not
    committing our respective churches and communities to decisions that
    could contradict or harm it."

    Those words appeared to refer to potential problems not so much with
    Orthodox churches as with the Anglican Communion. Several Anglican
    member churches have decided to ordain women priests and some to
    ordain women bishops, decisions the Vatican says create a serious
    barrier to full union with the Catholic Church.

    Patriarch Bartholomew joined the pope for the final blessing. Then
    the pope processed down the main aisle, smiling broadly and greeting
    many of the enthusiastic faithful who reached out from either side.
    One man waved a Turkish flag.

    Before the Mass, the pope blessed the statues of two popes in the
    courtyard of the cathedral: Pope John XXIII, who served for 10 years
    as apostolic nuncio in Turkey and was considered a good friend of the
    country; and Pope Benedict XV, who during World War I built hospitals
    in the region and made diplomatic moves in favor of Turkish
    prisoners.

    The larger-than-life bronze statue of Pope Benedict XV was unveiled
    in 1921, at a ceremony attended by many Muslim Turks. It bears an
    inscription hailing the pontiff as "the benefactor of all peoples,
    regardless of nationality or religion."

    After blessing the statues, the pope released four doves, one at a
    time, as a symbol of peace.

    The Mass was the final event of a trip that included political and
    ecumenical encounters. Before leaving for Rome from Istanbul's
    airport, the pope thanked city authorities and told them, "I am
    leaving a part of my heart in Istanbul."

    The evening before, several hundred young Catholics paid an
    unscheduled visit to the pope's residence at the apostolic nunciature
    in Istanbul. After they prayed and sang outside his window for more
    than a half-hour, the pope came to the window and offered a blessing
    and words of appreciation, telling the young people he would always
    keep them in his prayers.

    Earlier Nov. 30, the pope joined Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Mesrob
    II at his cathedral in Istanbul for a prayer service. The pope spoke
    again of the importance of ecumenism, in view of the "tragic
    divisions" among Christians that "give scandal to the world."

    "Precisely by the witness of their faith and love, Christians are
    called to offer a radiant sign of hope and consolation to this world,
    so marked by conflicts and tensions," the pope said.

    "We must continue, therefore, to do everything possible to heal the
    wounds of separation and to hasten the work of rebuilding Christian
    unity," he said.

    The pope also appeared to refer indirectly to the Armenian massacre
    when he said that the faith of Armenian Catholics has been
    transmitted "often in very tragic circumstances, such as those
    experienced in the last century."

    An estimated 1.5 million Armenians - more than half the Armenian
    population at the time - died in a forced evacuation by Ottoman Turks
    in 1915-18. Turkey rejects the accusation of genocide, saying the
    deaths were due largely to disease and famine.

    In private encounters later that evening at the apostolic nunciature,
    the pope met with Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan Filuksinos Yusuf Cetin
    and with Turkish Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva.
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