Let’s not fuel the tension” “” “

“Dialogue and mutual understanding”: these are for Archbishop Antonio Lucibello , apostolic nuncio in Turkey and Turkmenistan, the responses to the “tense climate” that reigns in many countries following the publication of the caricatures of the prophet Mahomet and that led in Turkey to the death of the Italian priest Father don Andrea Santoro on 5 February. Demonstrations accompanied with violence have also been directed against places of Christian worship, as in Nigeria, where at least 16 people have been killed, at Jakarta, in the Indian city of Lucknow, and at Islamabad. Clashes and victims have also been registered in Libya with the assault on the Italian consulate in Benghazi. Here the demonstrators were protesting against the T-shirt printed with the cartoons of the Prophet, worn by the Italian government minister and member of the Northern League Calderoni, who was later forced to resign. Thousands of demonstrators also took to the streets in Istanbul. The letter of apology written by the editor of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that was the first (in September 2005) to diffuse the caricatures of Mahomet, and published in Asharq al-Awsat, an Arab paper in Ryad, has served little to defuse the tension. After the murder of Father Santoro, what’s the situation in Turkey at the present time? “Yesterday (Sunday 18/2) there was a demonstration in Istanbul to ask for the boycotting of Italian products, while a few days ago there was an attack on the Armenian church of St. Gregory the Illuminator at Kaiseri, also provoked by the cartoons of the prophet Mahomet. As reported by the Armenian patriarchate, some unidentified persons fired pistol shots against the church that was then placed under police protection. Mesrob II, Armenian patriarch of Istanbul and all Turkey, deplored the use of violence against Christian places of worship, though recognising the right of Islamic faithful to peacefully protest against the blasphemy of the caricatures”. It’s not a particularly favourable period for the Christians of many countries.. “In Turkey the climate today is certainly not like the more relaxed atmosphere that reigned after the visit of Paul VI [on 25-26 July 1967] to Ephesus, Istanbul and Smyrna. It could hardly be otherwise following the offensive cartoons on Mahomet or the photos of the maltreatment of Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison. Muslims do not remain silent in response to these facts. For some of them ‘Western’ is synonymous with ‘Christian’, and this does not help”. What’s to be done in response to the clashes and civil disorder registered in many countries with an Islamic majority? “We must not fuel the climate of tension. So we need to lower our voices, try to defuse the tension. We must also try to avoid giving too much coverage in the media to scenes of fanaticism. Let’s not give to the fanatics the media visibility they crave! The assassination of Father Santoro is certainly not what was hoped for by the Turkish authorities and people of good sense, of whom there is no shortage here in Turkey. The Church continues her mission of dialogue and reconciliation. We can’t retreat. On recently meeting the mayor of Istanbul, I reminded him that episodes like the death of Father Santoro only reinforce the Church’s determination to enter into dialogue with other faiths. We need to continue to believe in dialogue and in mutual understanding. Our missionaries do not engage in proselytism, but seek to dialogue and establish links, points of contact and of understanding”. Could the death of don Andrea slow down this process? “Certainly not. Any drawing back would not have pleased don Andrea. The choice of dialogue is irreversible. Father Santoro’s assassination is the last thing that the Turkish authorities would have wanted. There has been no shortage of Turkish solidarity with the Church after these lamentable facts. The parish church of Santa Maria at Trabzon (Trebizond), where Father Santoro was killed, is closed but only while awaiting the appointment of a new priest”.