"It was not a Catholic publishing house explained Msgr. Franceschini; we have no buildings in Malatya. Before such events, I don’t know how one can talk about tranquillity, respect and dialogue, when violence succeeds. Last year, there were aggressions and murders". According to the president of the Turkish bishops, "we cannot say that the authors were isolated groups, but the hard core of fanatic fundamentalists". However, "there is also somebody trying to give us a different image, but the real one is the image or rejection. Here in Izmir, whenever you smile, quite often they willingly refuse to greet you. Then, amidst the people, the common people, there are also those who pay attention to values, honesty and friendliness, but we don’t see any changes. With respect to last November’s visit by the Pope, the atmosphere seems different. Today, dialogue was defeated, but we go on anyway. We follow the example of the martyrs, like Father Santoro, but we are aware that it is possible to change mentalities through real presence in the field, through people making their lives visible evidence of faith. Today, for the Christians, things are not going well. The Pope paved the way for dialogue in a significant way, but at least until today, as far as authorities are concerned, I never had any contacts, even though I wrote a lot".
