Austria's church-owned Kathpress newsagency has questioned Vatican data in the run-up to the Pope's late November visit to Turkey, and said the country could be home to many more Catholics than official figures suggest.
"Compared to a century ago, when Christian churches blossomed throughout the Ottoman Empire, Turkey's Catholic Church today is only a pale reflection of what it once was," the Catholic agency said. "But there are many Catholic immigrants from neighbouring countries, and the phenomenon of secret Christians also plays a role. Many families have remained faithful to the Catholic faith across generations, even without expressing it outwardly."
The agency was commenting on figures published last week by the Vatican's Statistics Office, which put membership of Turkey's seven Catholic dioceses and apostolic vicariates at just 53,000, spread over 54 parishes and 13 pastoral centres.
It said research by the Vienna-based Pro Oriente foundation had spoken of "crowded Catholic churches" in provincial Turkish towns from Izmir to eastern Anatolia. However, it added that the Church's expansion had been halted by a Government-backed "extermination campaign" against Christians in 1915, while many Catholics had become afraid to reveal themselves after the brutal June 2010 fatal stabbing at Iskenderun of Bishop Luigi Padovese, president of Turkey's Bishops' Conference.
"The lack of a public nationwide structure for the community of faith poses a major impediment," Kathpress reported. "But Christian places of worship, schools, hospitals and other religious institutions function under the Islamic model of pious foundations, whose directorate-general in Ankara contains a separate department for Christian bodies headed by a Christian."
Pope Francis is to be hosted by the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul on the 30 November feast of St Andrew the Apostle, in the wake of previous pilgrimages by John Paul II in 1979 and Benedict XVI in 2006. The three-day papal visit follows recent concessions to Christian minorities by the Government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has faced opposition to its hopes of joining the European Union because of complaints of discrimination.
The Vatican said six Catholic bishops, 58 priests and 54 nuns were currently ministering in Turkey, while four seminarians were training for the priesthood. A total of 29 Catholic kindergartens and schools were also operating in Istanbul and other towns, as well as several Catholic hospitals and homes for the elderly and disabled.
Above: Islamists in Turkey have increasingly made their presence felt but the country's Christian presence may be larger than previously thought. Photo: CNS/Reuters
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