Courtney McGrailPope’s visit welcomed by Muslim leaders
Two prominent Muslim religious figures in Turkey have welcomed the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to their country, saying they hoped it could shed light on the “peace” of Islam and help change bad images associated with that religion.
At Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque – often referred to as the Blue Mosque because of the turquoise tiles that adorn the early 17th-century structure – Ishak Kizilaslan said Muslims welcomed “everyone coming to us in a good way”.
Pope Francis’ scheduled visit to the mosque is important because the Pope will learn from mixing with those worshipping inside that “Islam is always peace,” Kizilaslan, the mosque’s head imam, or Muslim preacher, said.
“I will tell him… that Islam is peace, the word means peace and submission,” Kizilaslan said of what he plans to relay to Pope Francis if he gets the chance during the Pontiff’s November 29 private stop at the mosque.
“People’s eyes all over the world are going to be here, so [Pope Francis] is an important figure to make [Islam] more understandable… to non-Muslims,” the majority of whom, Kizilaslan said, did not “understand Islam in the right way”.
Pope Francis plans to spend November 28-30 in Turkey, an officially secular country, made up of mostly Muslims and a minority of Christians, many of whom trace their roots in the country back to biblical times.
Cemal Usak, a Muslim and longtime activist in interreligious dialogue in Turkey and abroad, said that he, too, welcomed Pope Francis’s upcoming visit, and he expressed hope the Pontiff would use the trip to speak out against current “tragedies” of the region.
“As you know, unfortunately, there are some tragedies in the region, war is going on and religion is viewed as an instrument for war, by ISIS and others,” he said, using an acronym for Islamic State, which Turkey considers a terrorist organisation.
Pope Francis “can give a message about the conflict, a message not to use religion as an instrument. ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. They are using Islam and religion to justify their bad ideology”, said Mr Usak.
Curial reform discussed, new head of worship office named
The same day the Pope spent three hours meeting the heads of Vatican offices to discuss the reform of the Roman curia, he named 69-year-old Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
Cardinal Sarah, who had been president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican’s charitable distribution and promotion office, since 2010, succeeds Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, who was named Archbishop of Valencia, Spain, in August.
The Vatican announced Cardinal Sarah’s appointment this week as the Pope was meeting him and the other presidents of pontifical councils and prefects of Vatican congregations.
Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the meeting was one of the gatherings Pope Francis holds with the heads of Vatican offices every six months. However, in view of the planned reorganisation of the Roman curia, the meeting also was an opportunity to explain the ideas developed so far by Pope Francis’ nine-member Council of Cardinals.
“It was useful to have this meeting to collect opinions” before the December 9-11 meeting of the council, which Pope Francis named to advise him on the Curia reform and on the governance of the Church in general, Fr Lombardi said.
The spokesman told reporters he understood that the process of making decisions and fine-tuning ideas about how to reorganise the Vatican offices “would continue for several months still. There is no sense that a new constitution is imminent”.