Pope Holds Mass Before Small Crowd As Tense Visit To Turkey Continues
Posted November 29, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It may have been the smallest group ever to attend a papal mass.
Pope Benedict the XVI preached in front of just 250 invited guests Wednesday, as his controversial trip to Turkey got under way in earnest.
The leader of the world’s Roman Catholic Church talked of peace, as soldiers and riot police armed with submachine guns patrolled outside. The event took place near the town of Selcuk, at one of the country’s holiest sites for Christians – next to the ruins of a home where it’s believed the Virgin Mary spent her final years on earth.
The octogenarian pontiff has become something of a persona non grata in the nation, after he revived an ancient quote calling Islam an evil religion.
He was attempting to mend fences, although it’s clear a lot of tension still exists.
“I have wanted to convey my personal love and spiritual closeness, together with that of the universal church, to the Christian community here in Turkey, a small minority which faces many challenges and difficulties daily,” the Pope intones.
He asked all religious leaders to be more tolerant and pleaded with them to “utterly refuse” to support any form of violence in the name of faith.
There are only about 20,000 Roman Catholics in Turkey, far outnumbered by the overall population of 70 million. Most are Muslim.
Heavy security continues to surround the tour. The Pope heads to Istanbul next, where police detonated a suspicious package close to where the pontiff will stay. No explosives were found inside.
