Benedict XVI turns to Mecca at Istanbul mosque
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Pope Benedict XVI stood in silent meditation in one of Turkeys most famous mosques Thursday in a dramatic gesture of outreach to Muslims after outrage from the pontiffs remarks linking violence and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.
The pope, accompanied by an Islamic cleric, bowed his head for nearly a minute inside the 17th century Blue Mosque in only the second papal visit to a Muslim place of worship. Benedicts predecessor, John Paul II, visited a mosque in Syria in 2001.
The mosque visit was added to Benedicts schedule as a "sign of respect" during his first papal trip to a Muslim nation, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said last week.
The pope removed his shoes before entering the carpeted expanse of the mosque, which is officially known as the Sultan Ahmet Mosque after the Ottoman sultan Ahmet I, who ordered its construction. But its widely called the Blue Mosque after its elaborate blue tiles.
The pope has offered wide-ranging messages of reconciliation to Muslims since arriving in Turkey on Tuesday, including appeals for greater understanding and support for Turkeys steps to become the first Muslim nation in the European Union.
But Benedict also has set down his own demands.
After a deeply symbolic display of unity with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the worlds Christian Orthodox, the pope again repeated his calls for greater freedoms for religious minorities and described the divisions among Christians - including the nearly 1,000-year rift between Catholics and Orthodox - as a "scandal to the world."