“It was a particularly laborious assembly. Our faithful are few and far between, scattered over a huge territory. So the first aim was to bring together all their representatives. And this meeting will be remembered as the first of its kind for our Church”. Satisfaction was expressed by Msgr. Louis Pelâtre, vicar apostolic of Istanbul, about the recent ecclesial assembly of the Turkish Catholic Church, held in the Turkish capital from 6 to 8 December 2002. “We didn’t put into practice any major projects. Nonetheless it seemed to us useful to seek coordination between the commissions to help us to work more effectively and in greater depth. Now the work is being transferred to the dioceses, where the recommendations made by the Assembly have still to be put into practice, bearing in mind the few resources we have at our disposal”. It emerged from the assembly that “one of the most urgent tasks for the Turkish Church is that of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. We don’t want to be an inward-looking, self-enclosed church. We want to be familiar and work with every reality in our territory. Another priority is that of the young, the real future for the Turkish Church, and the family. We need to form families based on Christian values and capable of bearing witness to the Gospel”. Lastly, the assembly stressed “the strong need for inculturation” which, in Msgr. Pelâtre’s view, also takes the form of “a greater use of the Turkish language”. “Let’s not forget he concluded that many priests of the latin Church are foreigners and don’t speak the Turkish language very well. A first symbolic gesture in this sense was made by the assembly itself: the final mass was entirely celebrated in Turkish”. D.R.
