TURKEY:Pope Benedict XVI prayed alongside Istanbul's leading Muslim cleric, Mufti Mustafa Cagrici, in the city's Blue Mosque yesterday. In stockinged feet, the pope stood alongside the mufti and closed his eyes for a short time in a moment of prayer as he faced east.
During the brief visit, his first as pope to a mosque, he listened attentively as the mufti explained its features while they walked around its carpeted expanse. John Paul was the first pope in history to visit a mosque; he did so in Damascus in 2001.
In the Blue Mosque yesterday Pope Benedict told the mufti he hoped the visit would "help us find together the way of peace for the good of humanity".
He was presented with a glazed tile decorated with a dove and a painting of a view of the Sea of Marmara off Istanbul. In turn he presented the imam with a mosaic showing four doves drinking from a vessel.
Pope Benedict's intention to visit the Blue Mosque was not announced until last week when Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said he would do so "as a sign of respect".
Moments earlier the pope had visited the 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia, which had been the major church in Christendom until 1453 when it was turned into a mosque. It has been a museum since 1935. A museum official explained the calligraphy and Christian symbols on the building's walls, including frescoes and mosaics of Jesus and Mary, who are also revered in Islam.
Security was extremely tight around both buildings yesterday, with snipers on the minarets that were added to Hagia Sophia after it became a mosque.
About 150 protesters, surrounded by riot police, gathered almost a mile away. One man was arrested.
Earlier yesterday moves towards union of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches were given a major impetus when Pope Benedict and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I issued a joint declaration in Istanbul renewing their commitment "towards full communion".
The joint declaration followed the celebration of divine liturgy in the Cathedral of St George by the patriarch, which was attended by Pope Benedict and during which he exchanged a "kiss of peace" with the patriarch and recited the Lord's Prayer in Greek.
At the end of the liturgy both church leaders blessed the congregation in Greek and Latin.
For both leaders yesterday's joint declaration represents both the purpose of and justification for the pope's controversial visit to Turkey.
In a homily at his first Mass as pope, in the Vatican's Sistine chapel on April 20th, 2005, Benedict said he saw as his primary task "the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers". This was, he said, his "ambition", his "impelling duty".
In the joint declaration yesterday the two leaders said they wanted their meeting to be "a sign and an encouragement to us to share the same sentiments and the same attitudes of fraternity, co-operation and communion in charity and truth".
They said they could not ignore "the increase of secularisation, relativism, even nihilism, especially in the western world", which called for "a renewed and powerful proclamation of the gospel, adapted to the cultures of our time". It was also why "we must strengthen our co-operation and our common witness before the world", they said.
Speaking of the EU, they viewed "positively" the process that led to its formation, but warned that religious freedom must be protected as well as minorities "with their cultural traditions and the distinguishing features of their religion".
They advised that Europe, "while remaining open to other religions", must preserve its Christian roots, traditions and values "to ensure respect for history".
In that context they evoked "the very Christian heritage of the land in which our meeting is taking place . . . "
They pointed out that "in this land, the gospel message and the ancient cultural tradition met". Both now support Turkey's application to join the EU. Patriarch Bartholomew has always done so, while Pope Benedict indicated his support at a private meeting with Turkish prime minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan at Ankara airport on his arrival on Tuesday.
In the declaration the pope and patriarch condemned the killing of innocent people in God's name as "an offence against him and against human dignity".
They took "profoundly to heart the cause of peace in the Middle East, where our Lord lived, suffered, died, and rose again . . ." and called for "respectful co-existence" there.
They encouraged "authentic and honest inter-religious dialogue, with a view to combating every form of violence and discrimination".