Pope Gives Nod to Turkey's Entry into EU
Date: November 28, 2006
Time: 09:06pm est

Benedict had two surprises today, day 1 of his pastoral journey to Turkey. The first was the graciousness-even sweetness-of his remarks made at his meeting with Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey's president of Religious Affairs, and initially one of the most outspoken critics of Benedict's September 12 Regensburg speech. I have only seen his remarks in Italian so far, but believe me, the Holy Father is pouring on the charm-that disarming charm, innocence and humility that so characterizes him and so often catches people completely off guard. It was perhaps off guard and much to his surprise that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, in a hastily arranged meeting at the Ankara airport, received an affirmative answer from Pope Benedict when he asked him to support Turkish membership in the European Union. See more on this in an excellent chronicle by Ian Fisher in the New York Times. Although the Pope himself seems to have immediately clarified that the Vatican does not have political power to intervene on this issue, it is nonetheless highly significant given the well known ambivalence of then Cardinal Ratzinger on the issue of Turkish inclusion in the EU. And in the context of the overwhelming tone of benignity and friendship, the Holy Father is obviously pursuing one of the main goals of his journey: to maintain an outstretched hand to the Islamic world in search of a foundation of dialogue. "Christians and Muslims, following their respective religions, point to the truth of the sacred character and dignity of the person. This is the basis of our mutual respect." If, however, the continual recourse to the notion of 'human dignity' will likewise continue to have an extremely short half-life in the Islamic mind, Benedict is throwing out other potentially more hopeful dialogue starters. We might expect him to have more to say about Islamic-Christian common ground in the rejection of secularist materialism and atheism. That might actually get some traction in terms of dialogue. We'll see.

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