The example of don Andrea

Don Andrea Santoro, don Martin Kmetec, Father Hanri Leylek, Father Pierre Brunissen: the list of the Catholic priests killed or attacked in Turkey continues to grow. It’s an escalation that began on 5 February this year, when the Roman priest, don Andrea Santoro, was killed in his parish church at Trabzon by a young fanatic, now being tried. Four days later, a young Slovene religious, don Martin Kmetec, was attacked and injured at Smyrna. On 11 March a youth armed with a knife some 80 cm long attacked the Capuchin friar Hanri Leylek at Merson. On 2 July, the French priest Pierre Brunissen was stabbed at Samsun, on the Turkish Black Sea coast. So the tension and fears for the lives of Catholic priests and for the Christians living in the country are rising. Monsignor Padovese, apostolic vicar for Anatolia, commenting on the attack on Father Brunissen, recognises that “the situation is no longer so peaceful as it was in the past. Father Brunissen himself had been threatened”. The threats against and the attacks on Catholic priests in recent months have induced the Turkish authorities to provide armed escorts for some Catholic priests. That the religious climate has changed has been perceptible for some time, ever since the press and television reported features in which Catholic missionaries were discredited, or shown in a bad light, with a series of allegations and accusations of aiding and abetting prostitution, money laundering, proselytism and Christian propaganda. In spite of this, the mission of dialogue and communion between the Catholic Church and Islam continues. “The example of don Andrea Santoro is alive and strong”, says the President of the Turkish Bishops’ Conference, Monsignor Ruggero Franceschini. NO HARD FEELINGS. “I’m well, even if slightly stunned”, commented Father Pierre Brunissen, the French priest attacked at Samsun. Contacted on the phone by SirEurope , the priest, well known for having re-opened the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Trabzon, and temporarily substituting don Andrea Santoro, assassinated on 5 February, tells his story as follows: “This person [i.e. a 47-year-old man known to be mentally unbalanced] had come to me on other occasions to tell me he wanted to introduce me to one of his friends. While I was going with him, he stabbed me in the side. I have no hard feelings against him. In spite of the fact that there are extremists, though few, who attack me also with a campaign of calumnies against me, I have for some time been trying to create, in my parish dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, together with my very few parishioners, as far as possible a climate of friendship with the Muslims of Samsun, with the authorities of the town, from whom I have received expressions of solidarity, and with the population in which I have many friends and feel very much at home. A minority of extremists cannot put dialogue at risk. AN IMAGE DISFIGURED . “I’ve spoken with him [Father Brunissen] on the phone”, commented Monsignor RUGGERO FRANCESCHINI , President of the Turkish Bishops’ Conference. “I was very glad to find him serene and tranquil in mind. He told he was well and had no hard feelings against the person who had attacked him, apparently a mentally unbalanced man”. “The local Turkish authorities have visited him to apologise on behalf of the town”. Confirming the good news about the physical condition of Father Pierre Brunissen, the French priest stabbed at Samsun, Msgr. Franceschini told SirEurope that “episodes of this kind only compromise Turkey’s bid to enter the EU, a membership that the Turkish Church has always supported provided that the rights of everyone are protected. Such attacks, very probably fomented by fundamentalists who exploit the weaknesses of psychologically vulnerable persons, disfigure the image of Turkey. For our part, we continue along the road of dialogue and mutual understanding. The example of don Andrea Santoro remains alive and strong. The priests I have contacted in recent days are very conscious of the risks, but have no fear. Dialogue needs time to mature”. MUSLIM BLOOD FOR FATHER PIERRE . Monsignor GEORGES MAROVITCH , spokesman of the Turkish bishops, agrees. In his view, “the gesture of a mentally deranged man cannot jeopardize the long process of interfaith dialogue. It was an isolated attack, not shared by the majority of Turks, and to be unreservedly condemned”. One aspect of the affair that should be underlined is the fact that many Muslims offered to donate their blood for Father Pierre. “We hope and pray that the forthcoming visit of Benedict XVI may generate an improvement of ecumenical and interfaith relations in Turkey and in Europe”, said Marovitch. The events of recent days in Turkey also had reverberations at the summit of religions due to end in Moscow today, 5 July. A Vatican delegations participated in it. Concurrently the second annual meeting of ASEM (Asia-Europe meeting of interfaith dialogue) was held at Larnaca, Cyprus, on “Understanding between the faiths and cooperation for a peaceful world”: 200 delegates attended it from 40 European and Asian countries.