(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has just concluded a three-day pastoral visit to Turkey which took him to the cities of Ankara and Istanbul. It was a journey that had a strong emphasis on ecumenical relations and interfaith dialogue and saw the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I sign a joint declaration pledging to intensify their search for Christian unity and calling for a constructive dialogue with Islam. Our correspondent travelling with the Pope to Turkey was Philippa Hitchen and in an interview with Linda Bordoni, she revisited some of the highlights of this papal trip.
Listen to the full interview with Vatican Radio’s correspondent Philippa Hitchen:
Pope Francis’ final engagement before he left Istanbul on Sunday was a meeting with a group of young people including many refugees from conflict zones of the Middle East and Africa. Philippa described the event as a “very poignant” visit and “personal encounter” between the refugees and the Pope that also helps to remind the international community of the huge number of refugees who have flocked to Turkey from neighbouring countries, especially Syria.
Turning to the Pope’s many other engagements during this “very busy” visit, Philippa said there were many moving and significant moments. One particularly striking moment for her was the Pope’s gesture of bowing his head and asking for the blessing of the Orthodox Patriarch during a Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul and she said this spoke volumes about the friendship between the two leaders and the ecumenical dialogue between their Churches.
“How could you not be moved by the moment that Pope Francis bowed his head and asked the Orthodox Patriarch to bless him and the patriarch planted a kiss on his head….. a real symbol of the friendship between these two people and also a real symbol of the direction that their Churches are taking..…a slow but steady progress towards reconciliation and Christian unity between East and West.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has just concluded a three-day pastoral visit to Turkey which took him to the cities of Ankara and Istanbul. It was a journey that had a strong emphasis on ecumenical relations and interfaith dialogue and saw the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I sign a joint declaration pledging to intensify…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) Sunday morning in Istanbul was dedicated to ecumenism with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the signing of the Joint Declaration by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and then lunch in which the two leaders participated together with their respective delegations. Vatican…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) Sunday morning in Istanbul was dedicated to ecumenism with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the signing of the Joint Declaration by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and then lunch in which the two leaders participated together with their respective delegations.
Vatican Radio’s Philippa Hitchen, who is travelling in Turkey with the Pope, spoke briefly to Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Director of the Holy See Press Office about the ongoing push for unity.
Listen to the interview :
Father Lombardi says that “Every time you pray together you do something that is very important, because we believe that unity is a gift of God” and – he says – “if you don’t pray very much you will never succeed in achieving unity”.
“I think in the atmosphere and also in the tone of the speech there was the expression of a very strong will to go forward” he continued.
Lombardi says that these two leaders – Pope Francis and the Patriarch Bartholomew are really willing to go forward and “I think they are trying to force the resistances’ that be, and also to encourage the progress of reflection and theological studies” he says.
Lombardi points out that theological reflection can take a long time, but one can press it to go faster if there is really is the inspiration and the mutual will to listen and to find solutions. “In this sense there is a very important impulse driven forward by these two men” he says.
And he says there are also other steps that can be taken, like the work of the Theological Commission the preparation of the Pan orthodox Council.
Lombardi concludes that even the crisis in the world today has awakened a new common sensibility giving us “many occasions in which we can go forward ecumenically”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In Istanbul on Sunday November 30th, Feast of Saint Andrew, Pope Francis took part in the Divine Liturgy celebrated by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Philippa Hitchen who attended the event places it into context:
Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report :
Watching the celebration of the Divine Liturgy inside the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, you could be forgiven for thinking this was just another lengthy, elaborate Orthodox liturgy, albeit an important one marking the feast of St Andrew, revered as the founder of the Church throughout the Orthodox world. You might also look at the rows of elderly men, robed in black and gold, half hidden behind the ornate icon screen and wonder what on earth this ancient liturgy has to do with the urgent problems facing Christians in this part of the world today. And you might even ask what’s the point of the Pope travelling to Turkey to meet with the Patriarch, a man he’s already encountered on three previous occasions in Rome and Jerusalem.
Speaking before the signing of a common declaration between the two Church leaders, Pope Francis answered those questions, stressing clearly what he called “the logic of personal encounter”. Theological dialogue between the experts is extremely important, he said, recalling the recent 50th anniversary of the Vatican II document on ecumenism which affirms the validity of Orthodox sacraments and the rich patrimony of all the Eastern Churches. But Christianity, the Pope said, is about a person-to-person experience which changes the way we view the world and treat other people. Just like Andrew, the Galilean fisherman, who was so touched by his personal encounter with Jesus, he wanted to share that joy with his brother Peter at the start of our Christian story.
But Sunday’s celebration wasn’t just about the warm embrace between the Pope and Patriarch either. They already see eye-to-eye on the urgency of a new, united Christian witness to the world. Pope Francis also said he also wanted to assure each one of the Orthodox bishops in attendance from different parts of the world that the Catholic Church does not intend to impose any conditions on the search for unity, other than a shared profession of faith. In the delicate relationships with other Orthodox leaders, let’s hope those words can help to increase the trust needed to make some concrete steps forward.
If you’re wondering why we should care about these rather specialised problems of promoting unity between the divided Churches, the Pope answered that questions too, saying people are crying out for a genuine Christian witness to the values upon which our faith is founded. Those people include the poor, the hungry, the unemployed, who look to the Church to defend their dignity and uphold their rights. They include all the victims of conflicts, whose cry urges us to move quickly along the path of reconciliation. How can we credibly proclaim a message of peace, he asked, if there continues to be rivalry and disagreement between us? And they include voices of young people who are looking for fulfilment but are unable to find it in contemporary culture which values happiness in terms of money and material possessions.
So beautiful though this ancient liturgy may be, it’s not about harking back to the past but rather about what the Churches, together, can do to help people suffering around the world today. It still won’t be easy to clear away all those obstacles that have built up between Catholics and Orthodox over the past millennium, but it’s one of the most urgent tasks facing Christians today. But it’s the reason why the Pope has come here to Turkey for a personal encounter that can help to speed up this urgent reconciliation process.
(from Vatican Radio)…