Pope's calculated risk?

With Pope Benedict's XVI's visit to Turkey now around the corner, there is an ever-increasing interest on this visit. There are many whose primary attention is given to the calculated risks that logically accompany this visit, not only by Pope Benedict himself, but also by Turkey and by the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.

It has to be stressed that Turkey welcomes the Pope's visit for political reasons. For some time Pope Benedict had intended to visit Turkey in November this year. One has to remember that before he was elected Pope, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had said in a profound lecture that Turkey had no place in the European Union and it should rather join a league of Muslim states.

However, Turkey considers itself as a bridge between the Middle East and Europe. No doubt this is how Ankara is presenting itself these days and will go all out to make the best use of this Papal visit to its political advantage.

At this stage it does seem that Pope Benedict is not going to Turkey primarily to seek a dialogue with Muslims - though the Holy Father does see this dialogue as an urgent issue.

One important factor that has to be kept in mind is that the prime purpose of the Pope's visit is to meet the most senior cleric of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. The Patriarch is the chief spokesman of the Eastern Church, just as the Pope's function is that of preserving the unity of the Western Church.

At this point A Christian Outlook wonders what the brilliant scholar Pope Benedict had in view when in his profound lecture in the Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg he quoted the 14th century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus on the subject of Christianity and Islam. Need one repeat that Pope Benedict stressed that he was struck by the "startling brusqueness, a brusqueness which has astounded us" of the emperor's remark about Islam?

We believe that when Pope Benedict referred to the Byzantine emperor's statement he could have had in mind his forthcoming meeting with the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Turkey.

Manuel II Paleologus (1350-1425) was one of the last Christian rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire. He was the father of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, who is revered by Greek Orthodox Christians as a saint. During Manuel II's reign, the Turks had conquered most of the Byzantine provinces, devastated and pillaged Greek cities, and enslaved thousands of Christian women and children. In 1394, the Sultan laid siege to Constantinople, inflicting hunger and suffering on its Christian residents for eight years.

As John Berwick, religious affairs correspondent of Deutsche Welle-TV, Germany's international state broadcaster, so aptly writes in his article "Sailing to Byzantium" (International Herald Tribune, September 30), "the Pope is 79 and in poor health. He knows that he won't live to see his dream of re-evangelised Europe come true. But the first step in that agenda-unity with the Eastern Orthodox communion-appears within his grasp."

Benedict XVI's reference to the Orthodox Byzantine Emperor Manuel II must have been deeply appreciated by the 240 million Eastern Orthodox Christians as a dramatic gesture of solidarity.

For the Pope it could have been a calculated risk. On our part we wish him success together with the promise of our prayers throughout his visit to Turkey.