Church in the World

Christians request return of church for ‘Year of St Paul’

Turkey

Turkey's Catholic Church is marking the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of St Paul by fighting for the return of an historic church at the Apostle's birthplace at Tarsus and improving the status of the country's tiny Christian minorities, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

Clergy are seeking the right to celebrate Mass at the Mediterranean town's twelfth-century St Paul's Church, now a state-owned museum that demands a fee for religious services. "This anniversary is certain to attract large numbers of pilgrims, who will obviously need a church where they can feel at home and pray," Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar of Anatolia, said on Tuesday.

"A government commission is now formally considering our request. But senior officials have agreed we should be able to worship here. After all, we are not missionaries - we are merely answering the needs of church members."

The Church counted on officials in Tarsus to make facilities available for pilgrims from around the world, Bishop Padovese said, and had asked to be allowed to make regular use of the ancient church. "The local authorities are aware of their town's significance for Christians and proud that one of its citizens was once a key figure. On the other hand, they aren't prepared for an increase of religious tourism with its special requirements," said the 60-year-old Franciscan, whose seven-member bishops' conference includes leaders of Turkey's Armenian, Syriac and Chaldean Catholic communities. "The local church was used by the Orthodox community before its closure ... but we hope it will now be made available to all confessions."

The Milan-born Franciscan bishop was speaking as preparations continued for a pilgrimage to St Paul's burial place in Rome to mark the year, which formally begins on 28 June. In addition he said a pastoral letter would be read in all Catholic churches on 25 January, the feast of the saint's conversion, while talks on ecumenical initiatives were under way with the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and other leaders of the 120,000 Christians in Turkey, which contains many sites associated with St Paul.

The Pope has declared 2008 the "Year of St Paul" in honour of the saint, who made three return journeys through Anatolia (which is in modern-day Turkey) between 47 and 57 AD, preaching the Gospel and writing letters to the Galatians and Ephesians, before he was arrested in Jerusalem and beheaded in Rome on 29 June 65, during the persecution of Nero.

Bishop Padovese said Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne had also given "strong support" to the Turkish bishops' initiative.