Pope Benedict is set to begin his historic trip to Turkey, where he is to visit Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Oops, sorry, all you Turks out there. No one is allowed to refer to the leader of the Orthodox Church by his title. Not recognized in Turkey, wouldn't you know, since it's a Christian religion and the country is Muslim.
The man on the street wants the Pope to express his most profound apologies for insulting Islam, and that's the story you'll read in the papers and hear on the news. Anyone mentioning anything about the minority religions that are being squeezed to death? Anyone?
His Holiness won't have any seminary visits on his visit because Turkey bans any but Sunni Muslim seminaries. The Greek Orthodox seminary was shuttered back in 1971. It is impossible for the Orthodox or Roman Catholic faiths to train new clergy, a slow suffocation of the religions that predate Islam and were, for all intents and purposes, there first. But it's the Pope who's due to apologize, as far as the Turks are concerned.
There are only two monks left at the Mar Gabriel monastery. Members of the Syriac Orthodox Church founded the place in 397 A.D., but the site is coming to the end of its existence as a Christian place of worship. That's fine with the Turkish government, since they go around confiscating non-Muslim property as the Christian community dwindles. The Turkish government is encouraging protests of the Pope's visit, but there's no word on a similar encouragement of the Christian community to protest against discrimination directed at their own faith.
The Monastery of the Seven Churches is crumbling to dust. Despite promises of foreign funding to pay for the restoration of its mosaics, the Turkish government will not issue the necessary building permits. The Turks are not as concerned with the loss of a monastery as they are worked up about some notion that His Holiness might be coming to reconsecrate the Hagia Sophia, in essence reclaiming a Christian church for Christianity. As far as the average Turk is concerned, the Muslims won it in a fair fight back during the Ottoman times, and it's a mosque, even if the government calls it a museum. Funny thing, isn't it, that they wail and moan about giving back land to the Palestinians who were there first? It's nothing to do with who was first on board, it's all about who's Muslim.
Oddly enough, the Christians in Turkey are praying for accession to the European Union. Only the pressure of Europe can keep the Turks from driving out every last Christian and eliminating forever the traces of a more ancient civilization. That's Turkey's idea of religious tolerance, you see. Tolerate one religion. And the Pope does not owe them any apology for speaking the truth.
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