Could Pope Benedict’s visit to Cyprus next month become heavily politicized?
In an interview with Terrasanta.net, the Cypriot ambassador to the Holy See, George Poulides, said that the Pope’s June 4-6 visit will act as “a vigorous protest” against the Turkish occupation of the north of the island.
“The moral influence of the Pope is massive,” Ambassador Poulides told me last week. “His mere presence on this wounded island constitutes a vigorous protest against the injustice and the violence that the Cypriot people have undergone, namely the Turkish occupation.”
Cyprus has been territorially divided since Turkish troops invaded the Mediterranean island’s northern region in 1974, which later declared itself a Turkish republic in 1983. The formal division of the country followed centuries-long tensions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots which precipitated after Cyprus won independence from Britain in 1960.
Although steps have been made towards reconciliation, the path has been fraught with difficulties.
The Pope, who will not be setting foot in northern Cyprus, will doubtless bring a message of peace and reconciliation, also because he will be concerned about the well-being of the Maronite community in the north.
Most of the island’s population are Greek Orthodox, but as Poulides points out, “the Maronite community suffers because of the Turkish occupation as much as the other Christians.” He said they “face oppression and threats every day so that they will leave their homes, just as they [the Turks] forced hundreds of thousands of Christians and Greek-Cypriots before them.”
Poulides added that even many Turkish-Cypriots don’t wish to live in the north any longer because of a prevailing atmosphere of “violence and abuse of power”. He thinks that the Pope’s visit may, therefore, prompt the Turkish government to allow the north to decide their own future.
As always, the Vatican will try to be sensitive to local concerns and prevent the papal visit from veering too much into politics. Benedict XVI will be especially keen not to upset Turkey as he sees the country as crucial to his outreach to the Islamic world.
Rather, the main emphasis of the apostolic visit will be pastoral, helping the local Catholic minority in the country, and boosting relations with the Orthodox. The Holy Father will also use the trip to present the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) to bishops participating in the synod on the Middle East, to be held in Rome in October.
But the Greek Cypriot government, ironically headed by an elected Communist president, understandably wants politics to take centre stage. God willing, matters will work out best for all sides.
Comments
Post a Comment
I don’t think the Communist president of Cyprus knows Pope Benedict XVI too well. Pope Benedict will make sure the faith of the people will be alive and that will be the strength the people need to keep living on. Almost sounds like when Venerable Pope John Paul II visited Poland. I say, go Pope Benedict XVI and act like your best friend; Venerable Pope John Paul II. Do what he did in Poland.
George Poulides has discreetly switched to becoming the Cypriot ambassador to the Holy See after having slaved people from all over the planet into a cruiseship company which went bankrupt in 2002. Great way to repent from messing up lifes of hundreds of International workers stuck overseas without a passport or a paycheck. And not being able to make payments for the huge boats built then. Surprise! I find the dude somewhere again… with honors.
The author conveniently forgets :
1- why Turkey has made an operation to the northern part of the island,
2- why she hasn’t captured the whole while she can
3- to mention it all started after an attempted coup to join Greece and massacre of Turks by Greek Cypriots
4- that Turkish side already decided years ago to join with south with the UN Annan Plan but the greek side simply rekected it
5- why and how EU aaccepted a divided island as a member as if it is representing the hole island and so many other things….A truly biased article…
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.