A city of dialogue” “

While the meeting was taking place between Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I and John Paul II in Rome, seat of the successor of Peter, on 29 June, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the historic meeting between Athenagoras and Paul VI, another historic event – by now traditional in the life of the Church – was being celebrated in Antioch on the river Orontes: sign of unity and brotherhood between Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims. It was in this city, in southern Turkey, that the first Christian community met immediately after the martyrdom of Stephen. Paul and Barnabas were present at this meeting, together with their first bishop Peter, apostle, the fisherman of Capernaum who, before going to Rome, stopped in Antioch for a few years. That’s why 29 June is celebrated here. Several thousand Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims join together to invoke peace for the world, in the place regarded as the first ‘seat’ of Christ’s successor. It’s a deeply moving day of celebration, especially due to the participation of all the city’s civil authorities and main religious exponents in the ceremonies organized by Catholics in the morning, in the forecourt of the rock church built by the crusaders, and in the afternoon in the garden of the Catholic parish, at the heart of the ancient Jewish quarter of the city. Led by the Apostolic Nuncio in Turkey, Msgr. Edmond Farhat, assisted by the apostolic vicar of Anatolia, Msgr. Ruggero Franceschini, the celebrations were attended by the Orthodox community, led by Metropolitan Bulos Yaziji, bishop of Aleppo and representative of the patriarch of Antioch S.B. Ignazio I, with all the various priests of the region and also some Maronites of Aleppo with their bishop Joseph Anis Abi Aad. Two Protestant pastors and the head of the local Jewish community were also present. What seems a distant mirage in many parts of the world is a reality in this land of Peter and Paul. It is expressed through an eagerly awaited annual meeting: a living proof that the tolerance and plurality of the faith is possible and that what often divides and obstructs, here becomes a reason for celebration. It’s not by chance that Antioch is a candidate for the Unesco world prize of “city of peace and tolerance”. All this is not improvised. The will to ‘walk together for peace’ has been for years a joint effort of the religious communities, matured in a climate of mutual respect, and translated into apparently trivial gestures but pregnant with meaning. Such as the gesture of the Nuncio who made the beginning of the eucharistic celebration wait in silence ‘in order not to disturb our neighbouring muezzin which calls the faithful to prayer from the minaret that overlooks our little church’ and that then joined him ‘in the invocation and praise of the one God of Love’. Or such as the gesture of the mayor, who participated in our celebration, bringing with him a large and brightly coloured wreath of flowers to add to our joy; or the mufti who, with great spontaneity, joined in the hymns of thanksgiving of the choir, following the rhythm with the tapping of his feet. But even more moving was the warm embrace between the Metropolitan and the Nuncio with the exchange of peace in the shared mother tongue: Arabic. This is Antioch, a city that has never ceased being a prophetic sign among the peoples and that still wishes today to follow the path traced by its Fathers. Maria Grazia Zambon (Antioch) Bush meets religious leaders US President George W. Bush met the leaders of the Turkish religious leaders, Moslem, Orthodox, Armenian, Syriac and Jewish, on the eve of the NATO summit in Istanbul on Sunday 27 June. At the end of the meeting, Bush praised his interlocutors and Turkey. “They – he said – represent the best of Turkey, which is a secular country in its politics but strong in its faith. I am honoured to have met such important leaders of the various confessions”. After the meeting, the ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, re-drew the attention of the Turkish media and political leaders to the question of the seminary of Halki, which is still closed, in spite of the repeated appeals of the Orthodox Church. Situated on the island of Halki, off the coast of Istanbul, this seminary – the only Orthodox one in the whole of Turkey – was closed in 1971. Since then, Patriarch Bartholomew has appealed on several occasions for its re-opening. Last year the Turkish government in fact announced its intention to re-open the seminary, also in its bid to adjust to European norms of democracy and respect for individual liberties. Turkey’s population is overwhelmingly (99%) of Moslem religion. Some 45,000 Armenians, 35,000 Jews, 20,000 Syriacs and 4,000 Greek Orthodox live in the country, mainly in Istanbul.