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The recent Feast of St. Andrew on 30 November, solemnly celebrated in Turkey by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in the presence as is now the tradition of a delegation from the Holy See, has underlined the importance of ecumenical dialogue as an indispensable means of bringing the Christian Churches closer together. This year the solemnity was enriched by one of those “concrete steps” frequently invoked by Benedict XVI: namely, the decision to re-activate, after an intermission of five years, the “International Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a whole”. A meeting to initiate the work will be fixed by the end of December. The step is a strong sign. It is also addressed at Europe, now grappling with the difficulties that stand in the way of closer integration. If the Christian Churches show in practice that they are progressing towards unity, the process of integration will also be all the easier and less beset by difficulties. John Paul II’s prophetic vision of a Europe that breathes with both lungs finds a clear realization in this renewed dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox. More united Christian Churches will also be more credible and stronger in the promotion of those evangelical values now being sorely put to the test by legislative provisions against the family and the person introduced in various European countries such as Spain, Belgium, Holland and Great Britain, just to cite some. Undermining the foundations of the family means preparing ourselves for a future deprived of hope. No religion, Islam included, can accept these decisions. Turkey is a laboratory of dialogue not only with Muslims but also with Jews. From dialogue we can only gain. Getting to know each other better, exchanging ideas and views, and sharing what we hold in common, are guarantees for a future of peace and tolerance. Vatican II’s Declaration “Nostra Aetate”, the 40th anniversary of whose promulgation we are commemorating this year, contains an invitation to forget the past in order to re-think the present and the future by discovering our common riches and values and by working together for the well-being and peace of the world. There are now millions of Muslims in Europe; as many as 15 million according to some estimates. Many of them profess true Islam, the kind of Islam that repudiates terrorism. In the Koran it’s written that if a man kills another person it’s as if he had killed the whole of humanity. A serious dialogue between the religions could give rise to fundamental support for the construction of a Europe and a world of peace. Turkey can make a great contribution to this. Believers of all the monotheist religions lived peacefully together in Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire, under the rule of the Sultan. And in a large square, close to an old people’s home and a foundling’s hospital, the Sultan ordered the construction of a church, a mosque and a synagogue so that all could worship according to their own faith.
