Los Angeles Times Tracy Wilkinson November 25, 2006
Turkey, which doesn’t recognize the Roman Catholic Church, is still rankled by Benedict’s comments on Islam.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY — To reach Turkey’s most important Roman Catholic church, a visitor must scour a traffic-choked street to find the metal doors, walk down a flight of stairs, cross a courtyard and finally step into the consecrated basilica.
940 AM Montreal November 27, 2006, EST.
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) – No moment of Pope Benedict’s trip this week may be more closely watched as his walk through the majestic Haghia Sophia, a domed complex whose history spans Istanbul’s stormy evolution from Christianity to Islam.
Kathimerini November 27, 2006
The pope’s visit to the seat of the Orthodox Church is taking place during a period when the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Christians living in Turkey are facing a daily struggle for their human rights and religious freedom.
National Catholic Reporter John L. Allen Jr. November 24, 2006
When Pope Benedict XVI travels to Turkey Nov. 28-Dec. 1, he faces a series of challenges that, like concentric circles, become larger and more daunting as they’re arranged around one another. Coupled with the intense media attention the trip is certain to draw — more than 2,000 journalists are expected to follow the pope on his first visit to a majority Muslim state — these complexities make Turkey the trickiest high-wire act of his pontificate to date.
Benedict is scheduled to make stops in Ankara, Ephesus and Istanbul. Among the conundrums awaiting him:
Fr. Roman Braga is a 78 year-old Romanian priest-monk who was imprisoned in a Communist gulag for eleven years. In this brief Frontline (PBS) interview, he discusses his transformative experience of faith found in solitary confinement.
Direct link: http://media.pbs.org/ramgen/wgbh/pages/frontline/1801/braga.rm
Page link: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pope/testimony/
The clip is in Real Player format.
Religious News Service October 13, 2006
Lead to Call for American Protection of Pope and Ecumenical Patriarch Meeting in Turkey
Yesterday’s reported beheading of an Orthodox Priest and a recent White House omission during a meeting between President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan increased concerns about protecting the spiritual heads of the two largest Christian denominations, while in Turkey together. Catholicism’s Pope Benedict XVI and Orthodoxy’s Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will be meeting in Turkey in late November. Turkey is the first Muslim country that Pope Benedict will visit. Until the year 1054, the Pope and Ecumenical Patriarch were presiding Patriarchs of the then-undivided Christian Church, in Rome and Constantinople.
Interfax October 4, 2006
An issue of Constantinople’s primacy does not infringe unity between the Orthodox Churches on major theological problems – Moscow Patriarchate’s representative
Moscow, October 4, Interfax – The controversy over Constantinople as ‘an Orthodox Vatican’ surfaced at the Orthodox-Catholic meeting in Belgrade does not infringe unity of the Orthodox world on major theological problems.
Turkish Daily News September 30, 2006
The Greek Orthodox patriarch says Pope Benedict XVI did not intend to offend Muslims with his remarks.
ISTANBUL – Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartolomeos I called on Christians to respect other religions and said on Thursday he was convinced the pope did not intend to offend Muslims with comments about the Prophet Mohammed.
The New Anatolian / Istanbul
Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos said late Thursday that Turkey’s request to become a member of the European Union will make the problems of Christians disappear “one after another.”
AsiaNews July 20, 2006
In a message to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Benedict XVI stressed that a shared commitment in defence of nature is “an example of the collaboration that Orthodox and Catholics should constantly search for in response to the appeal for a shared witness”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – All Christians, especially Catholics and Orthodox, are called to promote awareness to show “the intrinsic link between development, human needs and the safeguarding of creation”, said Benedict XVI. The pope was writing to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in a message that also drew attention to the ecumenical significance of a shared action in defence of nature.