Pope hailed for praying toward Mecca like Muslims

Reuters ^ | December 1, 2006 | Philip Pullella and Tom Heneghan

[jan in Colorado]

Pope Benedict ended a sensitive, fence-mending visit to Turkey on Friday amid praise for visiting Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque and praying there facing toward Mecca "like Muslims."

The Pope, who sparked protests across the Muslim world with a speech two months ago seen as criticizing Islam, looked relaxed and pleased as he entered the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit for a mass at the end of the four-day trip.

His first visit to a mostly Muslim country, held under tight security for fear of protests by nationalists and Islamists, was highlighted by a series of conciliatory gestures culminating in a stop on Thursday afternoon in Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque.

Istanbul Grand Mufti Mustafa Cagrici, who prayed with him there, said Benedict had faced Mecca and stood like Muslims do when they pray aright. "These were very nice gestures," he told NTV television.

"The Pope's dreaded visit was concluded with a wonderful surprise," wrote daily Aksam on its front page. "In Sultan Ahmet Mosque, he turned toward Mecca and prayed like Muslims," the popular daily Hurriyet said, using the building's official name.

Just before leaving, Benedict said he hoped his visit was seen as "a sign of friendship between religions" that helps bring countries and cultures closer together.

His gestures, including support for Ankara's bid to join the European Union and praise for Islam as a peaceful faith, seem to have persuaded the Turks to move beyond the tension following his speech quoting a Byzantine emperor as calling Islam violent.

But in Islam's Middle Eastern heartland, Arab commentators still call for Benedict to issue a full apology for his speech. Shocked by the protests it triggered, the Pope has said he did not agree with the controversial quote but has not apologized.

Catholic officials also presented the mosque visit as a key moment of reconciliation.

"I would compare the Pope's visit to the mosque to Pope John Paul's gestures at the Western Wall," said veteran Vatican mediator Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, referring to Pope John Paul II's prayers at Jerusalem's Western Wall in 2000.

"Yesterday, Benedict did with the Muslims what John Paul did with the Jews."

TRIP BRINGS OUT THE DIPLOMAT

Benedict told Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler at the city's airport before leaving for Rome that his visit to the Blue Mosque and the nearby Aya Sofya museum, once a Christian church and then a mosque, had "left a lasting impression" on him.

"A part of my heart stays here in Istanbul," he said, describing the city as "profoundly European" and a bridge between Europe and Asia. "I hope (my visit) "has the effect of bringing structures and civilizations progressively closer."

The trip brought out the diplomat in the theologian who was expected to take a tougher stand on Islam than his more outgoing predecessor John Paul.

Benedict did press during the trip for more freedom of religion in Turkey and by extension in other mostly Muslim countries, but not in the confrontational way some Church officials expected after he was elected Pope in April 2005.

About 30,000 of Turkey's 100,000 Christians are Roman Catholic, mostly living in Istanbul and Izmir.

There were only scattered protests against the visit

[Arizona Carolyn]

Good grief when even the Pope yields to these people we are in big trouble... talk about squeaky wheels getting the grease Islamist are bullying their way into running the world.

[Antoninus]

Uh, does anyone know what ad orientem means? And why Catholic priests used to face that way when saying Mass? And did the Pope actually say he was facing 'towards Mecca'? More likely, he was facing toward Jerusalem...

[Antoninus]

In my present church I face south, the one before that south, the one before that south, the cathedral downtown east, the chapel at my kids' high school west, the basilica at Notre Dame north.

And I'll bet you most of these edifices were built after 1950. In most Catholic Churches built before 1950, the priest faced east.

[X-Ecutioner]

I do not find this a good thing. A catholic praying to the east??

[Antoninus]

this was the closest the two faiths have been in a thousand years. That's saying something.

Only one Faith. That the East and West can't get it together is a testament to human nature, not a division of the Faith.

[Antoninus]

There is no proscription in Christianity to pray toward a certain direction, and to do so is idolatry in my book

Really? What book is that?

"A reading from the Book of Mom MD, Chapter 2, Verse 3."

[Antoninus]

Not so in the Cathedral of Mary our Queen in Baltimore Maryland, in which the folks face west.

Is that the old basilica built in the early 19th century? I've been in there and I could swear the congregation faces east...

[Aslan527]

The pope just prayed like a Muslim in what used to be the Haghia Sophia in the heart of the Christian World, Constantinople, which was brutally seiged by the Turks and eventually taken by Sultan Mehmed. I think any warm feelings are misplaced. Obviously I'm not a Catholic, or speaking against the pope in this way would be a sin. I'm afraid this is just the latest on a long list of occurrences where the West has capitulated to the god of appeasement and PC. I never thought those things would bring the pope to his knees. There were many popes who would have killed Benedict for that act. Fortunately we're in a brave new world where nothing is sacred. May God bless the pope and help him realize that there is no peace and there never has been outside of subjugation. He need not bow to this sort of pressure. We can kid ourselves all we want and say he's trying to win some sort of psychological game; we're just hanging around the field after the game was done. I'm sure every relativist felt their heart warm at this confirmation of their fallacy. bit harsh huh, maybe I'll tone it down next time.

[Antoninus]

Mohammed picked some bits from Arian Christianity...

I thought it was from monophysite Christianity, actually, as Arianism was primarily a western heresy.

[dmz]

No, I believe you are thinking of the Basilica of the Assumption. That is in downtown Baltimore (right across the street from the central Pratt library for those of you keeping score at home). The Cathedral of Mary our Queen is just south of the city line, a tad below Northern Parkway. The front entrance faces east, but the pews face west (unless they've turned it around since the last time I was in there). I was (in the 1970's) a choir boy at an Episcopal church and we did a Christmas program there one year.

[Antoninus]

No, I believe you are thinking of the Basilica of the Assumption.

I think you're right. When was the Cathedral built?

[dmz]

Started in 1959.

http://www.cathedralofmary.org/cathedral/tour/index.html

[Ieatfrijoles]

Your right. It's just like when the Babe pointed to right field before he jacked one out.

[r9etb]

St. Paul would have understood:

However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. (1 Cor. 8:7-13)

St. Paul talked about food, but his meaning was more general and it applies here. If the Pope can defuse a barrier to Christianity by facing east, then by all means let him do it.

[Fred Nerks]

I'm almost at the point of not reading Reuters or AP articles posted on FR, all of them are twisted, lying examples of what 'journalism' has come to. There's no semblance to truth in any of them, it's all agenda driven and they are playing us for fools. The moment Pope Benedict stood beside the mufti while the mufti prayed, was totally insignificant in light of the triumphant gesture when Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholemew joined their raised hands:

[Fred Nerks]

Moment of prayer to the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral and meeting with H.B. Patriarch Mesrob II Greeting of the Holy Father

Coverage / Commentary

Pope and Armenian Seek to Surmount Schism, Zenit News Service 11/30/06:
During the celebration of the Word, following [Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafina]'s address, Benedict XVI clarified that "Our meeting is more than a simple gesture of ecumenical courtesy and friendship."
"It is a sign of our shared hope in God's promises and our desire to see fulfilled the prayer that Jesus offered for his disciples on the eve of his suffering and death: 'That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me,'" the Pope said, quoting from John 17:21.

"We must continue therefore to do everything possible to heal the wounds of separation and to hasten the work of rebuilding Christian unity," the Holy Father continued. "May we be guided in this urgent task by the light and strength of the Holy Spirit."

Pope Recalls Armenian Genocide Catholic World News. 11/30/06:
In his greeting to the patriarch, the Holy Father praised the Armenian people for their faithful witness to the Gospel, even under "truly tragic conditions, like those experienced in the past century." He was clearly alluding to the slaughter of Armenians under the Ottoman empire.
To this day the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the genocidal campaign of 1915- 1917, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed during massacres and forced marches, as the government of the "Young Turks" forced the relocation of an entire people. The Armenian Apostolic Church remains the largest Christian community in Turkey, but today numbers only about 50,000 faithful; in the late 19th century the number was several million. There are about 2 million members of the Church living in the country now known as Armenia.

http://www.popebenedictxvifanclub.com/blog/

(for all the news on Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey)

[backtothestreets]

Thanks for the ping Jan.

I'm in agreement with the other posters to this thread that see the article as being much ado about nothing, at least from our perspective. On the other-hand, I see Muslims as wanting to use this as holding some special significance toward Islam. Had this occasion never taken place, the Grand Mufti would have used some other unintended act by Pope Benedict as giving credence to Islam.

Of all the thread responses the ones I find most interesting are those speaking of the end times. An aspect of end times prophecies has caught my interest in the past few days. Most, if not all FReepers are referring the end times they are familiar with from the Christian Book of Revelations, or the Jewish Bible. What I find most interesting is that Muslims too are speaking openly of the end times written within their Koran. There seems to be a convergence of the three. Would not the enemy be calling his forces to battle? How could a battle pursue without there being an opposing side?

It may be that a similar convergence of end times prophecy were present in the Middle East during the times of the Crusades, but such prophecies had taken physical proportion only within the area of combat. This present convergence differs as the areas of combat are not contained to a single world region, but are now occurring worldwide and being waged by acts of violence, in courts, in the media, in our schools, and neighborhoods.

These are interesting times we live in. Being most familiar with the Book of Revelations myself, I've a question for all others with a similar indoctrination. Do the revelations expressly say the anti-christ is living in the flesh amongst us in those days, or are we living in the days ushered in by the anti-christ? Is Mohammad not in a sense living amongst us by the very nature of the beast he created and unleashed? Were the Crusades that began in the 11th century the instrument which bound the beast of Mohammad for 1000 years?

I don't hold the answers. As you know, I am mightily opposed to Islam. Be these the end times spoken of in prophecy or not, Islam must be stopped by all necessary means.

[Antoninus]

Started in 1959.

There's the explanation...

[livius]

That too, but Arianism was scattered about North Africa.

[Fred Nerks]

"...Had this occasion never taken place, the Grand Mufti would have used some other unintended act by Pope Benedict as giving credence to Islam..."

How right your are!