Pope Benedict XVI will make his first official visit to a Muslim country, visiting Turkey in November, the Vatican announced today.
The Pope accepted an invitation by the Turkish president to visit the country on November 28-30th and details of the visit were being worked out, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement.
Confirmation of the trip came days after the killing of an Italian Roman Catholic priest at a church in Turkey's Black Sea Coast.
The Vatican newspaper has said that the death of Rev. Andrea Santoro was part of recent tension in the Muslim world over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
Benedict said this week that he hoped "the sacrifice of (Santoro's) life will contribute to the cause of dialogue between religions and peace among peoples." Vatican Radio today reported what it said were the contents of a letter Santoro had written to the pope five days before he was killed, in which he invited Benedict to visit his small parish.
"A visit by you, even if brief, would be consoling and encouraging" to the faithful, Santoro wrote. The pope's planned visit to the overwhelmingly Muslim nation coincides with the Christian feast day of St Andrew on November 30th.
St Andrew was one of the apostles of Christ who travelled across Asia Minor and is considered the father of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Byzantine name for the present city of Istanbul. Andrew's contemporary, St Peter, travelled West and founded the church in Rome.
The two churches were united until the Great Schism of 1054, precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope. Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, who has his headquarters in Istanbul, had hoped that the pontiff would have celebrated the feast with him last year.
But instead of approving a visit then, the Turkish government issued its own invitation to Benedict for some time in 2006. Bartholomew has said that he is eager to meet with Benedict this year as part of efforts on both sides to heal the 1,000-year-old rift.
Benedict has said that healing the rift is a "fundamental" priority of his pontificate. While only a few thousand Orthodox worshippers remain in Istanbul, Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of some 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
The Orthodox Church says it is the oldest religious organisation in Turkey, established in 381.
AP