Spotlight: Pope Benedict XVI – Turkey trip will test faiths

By Tony Barber in Rome

Published: November 24 2006 17:31 | Last updated: November 24 2006 17:31

Few would seriously compare it to Daniel’s experience in the lions’ den, but the visit to Turkey on which Pope Benedict XVI embarks tomorrow is undoubtedly the most sensitive foreign trip of his 21-month reign.

The Pope’s four-day visit was originally intended to cement relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the world’s Orthodox Christians, whose spiritual leader, Bartholomew I, will have a private meeting with Benedict on Wednesday.

However, another dimension to the visit was added in September after the Pope enraged Muslims across the world by quoting a medieval Byzantine emperor in a manner that linked the Prophet Mohammed with violence.

Even in Turkey, a secular, democratic republic, many Muslims denounced the pontiff. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, who is a devout Muslim, told Italian television last Thursday: “We have never allowed ourselves to insult the prophets of other religions. Our faith obliges us to show respect. Therefore, it is our right to expect the same treatment from members of other religions.”

Neither Mr Erdogan nor his foreign minister nor his religious affairs minister will meet the Pope in Turkey, the official explanation being that they all have important foreign engagements this week.

After the storm over his September speech, Benedict did not offer an explicit apology to Muslims but rather said he was sorry for the reactions to his remarks.

This response drew attention to what many liberal Catholics, as well as people of other faiths and non-religious commentators, regard as a certain narrow-minded, not to say dogmatic, aspect of the 79-year-old Pope’s character.

Yet Giancarlo Zizola, one of Italy’s most experienced Vatican-watchers, says this view of Benedict is a caricature and obscures his efforts to reshape the papacy into a more modest mould after the 27-year reign of John Paul II, his predecessor.

John Paul was one of the most towering personalities in the 2,000-year history of Christianity but he also disoriented millions of Catholics by leaving a legacy of profound divisions and unresolved ethical controversies in the Church.

The white-haired Benedict, who was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in April 1920 in the German state of Bavaria, has quietly sought over the past 21 months to remove the media-driven “superstar” features of John Paul’s papacy and make the institution appear more humble in the eyes of the faithful.

In a speech to cardinals in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel soon after his election as Pope, Benedict, referring to himself in the third person, said: “In undertaking his ministry, the new Pope knows that his task is to make the light of Christ shine in front of men and women – not his own light, but that of Christ.”

It was the first signal from Benedict that he intended to distance himself from John Paul in terms of style, if not doctrine.

Yet even Benedict’s ethical teachings may prove to be less conservative than many imagine, if a current debate over the Church’s attitude to condoms is anything to go by. The Vatican vigorously disapproves of condom use, but Mr Zizola says the rapid spread of Aids around the world, especially in Africa, an increasingly important region for Roman Catholicism, is forcing a rethink.

Now many senior prelates are advocating “a less restrictive interpretation of moral law” that would permit condom use to prevent “greater evils”, specifically the infection of a person with Aids through sex, Mr Zizola says.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog that Benedict led for 24 years from 1981 to 2005, is currently reviewing the issue. Ultimately, the Pope will decide whether to modify the Church’s position.

Like John Paul, Benedict has spent much of his reign fretting over rampant materialism, moral relativism and the decline of organised religion in the western world, especially Europe.

But Turks are more likely to remember Benedict’s comment in 2004 that the European Union should not admit Turkey as a member because Turkey had always been “in permanent contrast to Europe”.

With Turkey’s EU membership negotiations hanging by a thread, and with persistent tensions over Islam’s presence in Europe, this week’s visit will require all the diplomatic tact of which Benedict is capable.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006