{"id":25870,"date":"2010-10-15T16:10:36","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T20:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/10\/has-the-catholic-church-in-tur\/"},"modified":"2010-10-15T16:10:36","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T20:10:36","slug":"has-the-catholic-church-in-tur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/10\/has-the-catholic-church-in-tur\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the Catholic Church in Turkey been too neglected by us?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nArchbishop Ruggero Franceschini, OFM Cap. of Izmir,
\nTurkey, and Administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia and President
\nof the Turkish Episcopal Conference, gave the following intervention today. The
\npoint of noting the Archbishop’s intervention here is that I believe we have to be concerned with
\nthe reality of the Catholic faithful in places outside our neighborhood. Catholics can’t simply concerned with matters that are near. The June murder of Capuchin Bishop Luigi Padovese<\/a>‘s death has remained a key point in my prayer, interest
\nin ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, the missionary aspect of the Church’s
\npreaching program and the extent to which one would lay down his life for the
\nGospel of Jesus Christ. Is Luigi Padovese a martyr? Franceschini has been clear that Padovese’s death was premeditated by Islamic radicals with a hatred toward Christianity while the Turkish authorities insist the murder was personal and not politically or religiously motivated.<\/i><\/span> I am not sure as I didn’t know the state of his soul or his true relationship with Christ. The designation of a person as a martyr is a matter for Mother Church to make, but I might be persuaded to think in that direction. Christians comprise less than one percent of the Turkish nation.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

\"Bp<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span>“The little Church of Turkey, at times ignored,
\nhad her sad moment of fame with the brutal murder of Bishop Luigi Padovese
\nO.F.M. Cap., president of the Turkish Episcopal Conference. In a few words I
\nwould like to close this unpleasant episode by erasing the intolerable slander
\ncirculated by the very organisers of the crime. It was premeditated murder, by
\nthose same obscure powers that poor Luigi had just a few months earlier
\nidentified as being responsible for the killing of Fr. Andrea Santoro, the
\nArmenian journalist Dink and four Protestants of Malatya. It is a murky story
\nof complicity between ultra-nationalists and religious fanatics, experts in the
\n‘strategia della tensione’. The pastoral and administrative situation in the
\nvicariate of Anatolia is serious. … What do we ask of the Church? We simply
\nask what we are lacking: a pastor, someone to help him, the means to do so, and
\nall of this with reasonable urgency. … The survival of the Church of Anatolia
\nis at risk. … Nonetheless, I wish to reassure neighbouring Churches –
\nespecially those that are suffering persecution and seeing their faithful
\nbecome refugees – that the Turkish Episcopal Conference will continue to
\nwelcome them and offer fraternal assistance, even beyond our abilities. In the
\nsame way, we are open to pastoral co-operation with our sister Churches and
\nwith positive lay Muslims, for the good of Christians living in Turkey, and for
\nthe good of the poor and of the many refugees who live in Turkey”.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archbishop Ruggero Franceschini, OFM Cap. of Izmir, Turkey, and Administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia and President of the Turkish Episcopal Conference, gave the following intervention today. The point of noting the Archbishop’s intervention here is that I believe we have to be concerned with the reality of the Catholic faithful in places outside … Continue reading Has the Catholic Church in Turkey been too neglected by us?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1810,2438,1773,1843,2439,2442,1930],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}