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Pope makes historic mosque visit, prays with Mufti |
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Written by Reuters
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Friday, 01 December 2006 03:58 |
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Pope Benedict visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Thursday, only the second Roman Catholic Pontiff to take such a step, and prayed silently in another gesture of reconciliation to the Muslim world.
The Pope stood alongside an Islamic cleric during his visit, which came after he infuriated Muslims with comments taken as indicating he thought Islam was violent and irrational.
He took off his shoes and put on what looked like white cloth slippers to enter the mosque. He was told its history and architecture by Istanbul's Grand Mufti Mustafa Cagrici.
Toward the end of the visit, which lasted about 20 minutes, the two stood side by side for about a minute. The Pope kept his arms crossed at his waist. His lips could be seen moving silently.
The Muslim cleric touched his faced in the traditional Islamic gesture at the end of prayer. The Pope nodded and the two exchanged gifts before Benedict left.
As he left the Pope was heard by reporters to tell the Mufti: "Thank you for this moment of prayer".
Asked if the Pope had prayed, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said:
"This was a moment of reflection and meditation. Certainly, this was a moment of personal meditation in a relationship with God. You can even call this personal, intimate prayer but there were no external manifestations or characteristics of the Christian faith."
Benedict's predecessor Pope John Paul II made the first papal visit to a mosque during a trip to Damascus in 2001.
The Blue Mosque, known officially as the Sultan Ahmet mosque, opened in 1616 and is the most famous in Turkey. It got its popular name from the fine blue Iznik tiles in the main prayer room.
It stands in Sultan Ahmet Square in the old center of Istanbul, opposite the Aya Sofya museum which was once the Christian church Hagia Sophia. The Pope visited the mosque after a short tour of Aya Sofya.
Benedict's visit was a late addition to his schedule meant as a gesture of respect for Islam after he angered Muslims with apparently critical comments in a speech in September.
The German-born Pope has already defused much of the tension linked to his visit, his first to a mostly Muslim country, by supporting Ankara's bid to join the European Union and praising Islam as a religion of peace.
Earlier, Benedict and the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians prayed together and signed a common declaration -- usually confined to theological issues -- appearing to jointly support Turkish membership if it protected religious liberties.
In the declaration after a prayer service, Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew rejected the concept of killing in God's name, denounced terrorism and re-committed their Churches to the quest for unity and condemned violence in the Holy Land.
"We have viewed positively the process that has led to the formation of the European Union," the statement said.
"In every step toward unification, minorities must be protected, with their cultural traditions and the distinguishing features of their religion," it added.
Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, strongly supports Turkey's membership in the EU and two days ago the Pope did an about-face from his previous opposition to Ankara's bid. |