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Published by
Catholic Online News,
September 9, 2005
Swiss scholars want famous
church returned before Turkey joins EU
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By Jonathan Luxmoore
The sixth-century Church of Hagia Sophia in
Istanbul became a museum in 1934.
OXFORD, England (CNS), September 9, 2005 --
Swiss scholars have petitioned the European
Parliament to ask that Istanbul's sixth-century
Church of Hagia Sophia, now a museum, be
restored for Christian worship before Turkey
joins the European Union.
"This is not a public building that changed
ownership with the conquest of a war -- Hagia
Sophia is a place of God, Christendom's grandest
place of worship for over 900 years, and
arguably the most perfect and beautiful church
erected by any Christian people," the group said
in statement on a Hagia Sophia blog, or Web log.
"Turkey has long severed its ties with darker
aspects of its Ottoman past. It aspires to join
the European Union. The time has come to restore
Hagia Sophia's spirituality as a place of
Christian worship," the Swiss scholars said.
The statement noted that Turkey was trying to
convince the European Union it deserved
membership by 2015.
"We need a million signatures to force the
European Union to consider this proposal
seriously and debate it immediately," said the
group, chaired by Zurich University psychologist
Angeliki Papagika.
The Church of Hagia Sophia, which means holy
wisdom, is considered the mother church of
Orthodox and of Byzantine Catholics and was
rebuilt in its present form in the sixth
century. Byzantine Catholic Web sites also have
appealed for its return to Christianity.
The church was used as a mosque after the city's
capture by Ottoman Turks in 1453 and was turned
into a museum in 1934 by Turkey's first
president, Kemal Ataturk.
Christians have often complained of
discrimination in Turkey, most of whose 67
million inhabitants are Sunni Muslims. Although
the government has pledged to protect religious
minorities, a 2002 religious rights law was met
with skepticism by Christian communities,
including Turkey's 32,000-strong Catholic
Church, which has vicariates in Istanbul and
Anatolia and an archdiocese in Izmir.
Turkish officials repeatedly have reneged on
promises to allow the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople to reopen its theological
faculty, forcibly closed in the early 1970s, and
to make essential repairs to its 72 churches in
Istanbul.
Pope Benedict XVI is expected to visit Turkey
for the Nov. 30 feast of St. Andrew, the patron
of the ecumenical patriarchate.
Last November, Catholic bishops from European
Union nations declared support for Turkey's
proposed membership, but warned the country
would have to "respect fundamental rights."
In August 2004, Pope Benedict, then-Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, told France's Le Figaro daily
that Turkish membership would "contradict
Europe's Christian character."
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