Pope's planned visit a test of relationships
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Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 17, 2006 12:15
A planned trip to Turkey by Pope Benedict XVI will be a critical test of Christian-Muslim relations, said a top Roman Catholic official on Wednesday. "Now (the trip) becomes very serious," Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican's office for Christian unity, told The Associated Press during a gathering of Christian leaders and envoys hosted by the World Council of Churches, after an article appeared in a Vatican newspaper linking the killing of a Catholic priest in Turkey to protests over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
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The planned papal November visit could be used to press Turkey on lessening restrictions on Christian churches and school, suggest Kasper. The trip to Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI's first to a Muslim country was announced just days after the Feb. 5 killing of an Italian priest, the Rev. Andrea Santoro, in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.
"Santoro's death is a shock also for Turkey to open itself a little bit to Christians," Kasper said. "I think this could be reason to reflect about it and have more openness to other religions."