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VATICAN: POPE TO VISIT TURKEY 28-29 NOVEMBER |
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Written by AK
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Thursday, 09 February 2006 17:58 |
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Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the invitation of Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer to visit the country on 28-29 November 2006, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Thursday. The official invitation came just a few days after the murder of an Italian Catholic priest, Andrea Santoro, which shocked Turkey's small Catholic community. Father Santoro was shot dead on 5 February in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon.
"I confirm that Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer has invited his Holiness Benedict XVI to carry out an official visit to that country on 28-30 November 2006. The Holy Father has accepted the invitation. The details of the visit are currently being discussed" said the Vatican press spokesman, Joaquim Navarro-Valls.
While he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI had expressed opposition to the mainly Muslim nation's potential EU membership, describing it as "a grave error"." The Vatican has distanced itself from the pope's past remarks, saying he expressed his personal opinion.
Turkey started membership talks with the European Union in October last year.
The pope is also slated to meet with Orthodox patriarch Bartholomew I.
Turkey has been careful to avoid any move that may imply recognition of Bartholomew's ecumenical title. Ankara treats the patriarch only as the spiritual leader of some 2,000 Orthodox Greeks in Turkey.
Pope Benedict will be the second pope to travel to Turkey, after his predecessor John Paul II visited the country in 1979, shortly after his election. |