Ramping up the press coverage
Pope Benedict leaves for Turkey tomorrow, and today the world’s press is awash with advance coverage and speculation. They’re setting the stage for drama and tension.
No moment of Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming trip may be more closely watched as his walk through the majestic Haghia Sophia, a domed complex whose history spans Istanbul’s stormy evolution from Christianity to Islam.
It’s not the homage to early Christianity that has many Turks on edge. It’s how Benedict could chose to pay his respects on Thursday — near the end of a four-day visit that begins Tuesday.
Any gesture perceived as worship — even as simple as making sign of the cross — could be viewed as a serious affront by his hosts and undermine the Vatican’s attempts to rebuild goodwill with Turkey as a bridge to other Muslims nations.
“The pope is treading on very sensitive ground as soon as he enters Haghia Sofia,” said Dogu Ergil, a professor of social and religious trends at Ankara University.
But it requires a sweeping view of Turkish attitudes to understand why.
Haghia Sophia — “Holy Wisdom” in Greek — rose from the ruins of an earlier church in the 6th century and now holds 15 centuries of religious and political history under its massive central dome and multicolored marble columns.
It was the architectural and spiritual marvel of Christian Byzantium until the city — then known as Constantinople — fell to Muslim forces in 1453. Crosses and other Christian symbols were defaced and it became one of the most renowned mosques of the expanding Ottoman Empire.
In 1935, it again was transformed — this time into the Ayasofya museum during the secular reforms of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who built modern Turkey from the Ottoman ruins. Religious services are prohibited and Benedict’s visit is considered by Turkish officials as only sightseeing.
An open act of piety by the pontiff would likely enrage powerful Turkish nationalists, who hold sway over the political and military establishment, as a perceived signal of Christian claims to the site and a challenge to Turkish sovereignty.
“The risk is that Benedict will send Turkey’s Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is any perception that the pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims,” said an editorial in Turkey’s independent Vatan newspaper on Sunday.
It’s another complication amid many for Benedict in Turkey.
If much of the Islamic world falls into “paroxysms pf fury” over the Pope’s visit there, my bet is that it won’t be because of any mis-step by Benedict. But because perception trumps reality in some radical minds, they’ll blame him anyway.
The Turkish government, Islamic clerics, Christian clergy and world media have to be voices of reason and truth. They will determine, as much as Benedict, how this week’s visit turns out.
