– Overtures to Muslims –
The pope’s trip to Istanbul – once the capital of the Christian Byzantine world and formerly known as Constantinople – was marked by his overtures to Muslims and other Christian confessions.
On the final day of his first visit to Turkey, Francis urged an end to the millennium-old schism between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches and said this was all the more urgent due to the violence against Christians by Islamic State (IS) extremists.
Early Sunday he attended a divine liturgy led by Bartholomew, the “first among equals” of an estimated 300 million Orthodox believers.
“How can we credibly proclaim the message of peace which comes from Christ if there continues to be rivalry and disagreement between us?” he said in an address at the Orthodox Patriarchate.
Bartholomew for his part said that while the road to full communion would be “perhaps lengthy and sometimes even rugged” it was irreversible.
He echoed the pope’s comments that the violence against Christians had made this more pressing. “We no longer have the luxury of isolated action.” READ: Gunmen execute 28 on Kenya bus near Somalia border.
The two Church leaders also called on the parties involved in the Ukraine conflict “to pursue the path of dialogue and of respect for international law”.
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