Churches ‘must unite for the persecuted’

POPE FRANCIS called with renewed urgency for full unity between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches last weekend during a visit to Turkey that set ecumenism firmly within the context of Christianity in the Middle East.

Francis met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on several occasions between landing in the capital Ankara on Friday and leaving from Istanbul on Sunday, celebrating three liturgies with him.

At an intimate Mass for Turkey’s small Catholic community in Istanbul on Saturday the Pope told a congregation that included Bartholomew that diversity of denominations did not lead to disorder, but through the Holy Spirit led to “unity, which is not the same thing as uniformity”.

People stood on chairs and leaned over the balcony of the small church’s gallery to catch a glimpse of the Pope.

Afterwards, at a joint prayer service at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St George in Phanar, Istanbul, Francis asked Bartholomew for a blessing on himself and the Church of Rome.

Patriarch Bartholomew reciprocated with his own call for unity on Sunday, at an Orthodox celebration of the divine liturgy to celebrate the feast of St Andrew, its patron saint. In his address he also invited a Catholic observer to attend the Great Council of the Orthodox Church in 2016.

Elsewhere, Francis met briefly with Turkish Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva and, on his way to the airport on Sunday, made a spontaneous visit to the Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II at the St Saviour Armenian Hospital. The patriarch, who could not attend the liturgy, suffers from a form of dementia and is seriously ill.

On Sunday Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch signed a Common Declaration that promised to pursue unity with renewed intensity, spurred on by the persecution of Christians in the Middle East which it observed led “to an ecumenism of suffering”. Afterwards, Francis met with some 100 Iraqi, Syrian and African refugee children – including Muslims – who are being taught by Salesians in Istanbul.

The Pope was tacitly critical of the Government’s treatment of Christians, an often persecuted minority in the Muslim country, and on the first day told the president of religious affairs, Mehmet Görmez, in the capital Ankara that he was obliged to denounce violations against human rights. On Saturday morning he prayed alongside the Grand Mufti of Istanbul in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, popularly known as the Blue Mosque.

n Pope Francis has suggested the blame for hundreds of civilian deaths in Syria in August 2013 lies with foreign powers that provided the Assad regime with chemical weapons, writes Hannah Roberts. On the plane back from his trip to Turkey he told journalists: “I don’t believe that Syria was capable of making chemical weapons. So who could have sold them to them? One of those who accused them?”

Responsibility for the attacks has still not been established, and Turkey, Saudi Arabia and anti-Assad rebel groups have also been accused of being implicated, with the aim of provoking US intervention against President Assad.