Symbolic Voyage

"In accordance with the style that is now ours," said Pope Paul VI last month, after announcing that he would make a visit to Turkey, "the journey will be extremely rapid." Rapid it was: less than 38 hours. It was also, in many ways, much less spectacular than his earlier journeys to India, the Holy Land, the U.S. and Portugal's Fatima. In Istanbul last week, the Pope had a warm and fraternal encounter with Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople--but there was none of the drama of their first meeting three years ago on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. Though cordially received by predominantly Moslem Turkey, the Pope drew crowds modest by comparison with the millions who cheered him in Bombay and New York.

The meeting with Athenagoras, primate of Orthodoxy, was clearly the main purpose of the Pope's visit. In large measure, the diffident reception accorded Paul reflected Turkish dislike for Athenagoras, the titular spiritual leader of Cyprus' Archbishop Makarios, whom the Turks despise. In retaliation against Greek Cypriot "atrocities," the Turks have expelled many of the country's Orthodox believers, even hinted that Athenagoras, although a Turkish citizen, might some day be forced into exile.

Axios! Axios! The meeting between Pope and Patriarch took place at the Orthodox Cathedral of St. George, a ramshackle Byzantine-style church down by Istanbul's lumberyards. After joint prayers, the two exchanged gifts--a gold-embroidered stole for Paul, an ikon for the Patriarch--while the congregation, following the Orthodox tradition, shouted "Axios! Axios!" (worthy, worthy).

Speaking in French, Paul expressed the hope that the two churches--which have been kept separate for more than 900 years primarily by the question of papal sovereignty--might soon be one. He also made clear that in any reunion, the Eastern church would maintain its own traditions, liturgies and theology. "The discovery that in diversity and fidelity we are one can only come from the spirit of love," he said. Answered Athenagoras, in Greek: "Let us build the body of Christ by reuniting that which is divided and reassembling again what is dispersed."

Turkey's President Cevdet Sunay and Prime Minister Siileyman Demirel had scheduled a heavy round of events for the Pope. Paul met for 70 minutes--about as long as he had spent with Athenagoras--with Sunay. The Pope also took a quick ride over the Bosporus aboard Sunay's presidential yacht and visited Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), which was, until Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror proclaimed it a mosque in 1453, one of Christendom's largest churches. "It's beautiful," murmured the Pontiff, who startled his hosts by kneeling for a moment of silent prayer in what is now a state museum--and by law out of bounds for worship by any faith.

Dusty Road. Paul next morning flew off to Izmir, 51 miles from the ruins of Ephesus--one of the cities in which his namesake the Apostle preached the Gospel outside Palestine. Despite the wilting 109DEG heat, the Pope scrambled up a dusty road to study the ruins of the Church of the Virgin Mary, where the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431 proclaimed her divine motherhood. He also stopped to pray at a shrine marking the house where the Virgin is said to have lived before her death. "How do we know that Mary lived here?" he asked. "Tradition proves it to be so," responded a brown-robed Capuchin who serves as caretaker. "People in the area have said so for centuries."*

After a final stop at the Church of St. John in Izmir, where most of the worshipers were families of U.S. servicemen stationed there with NATO forces, Paul flew back to a vacation at his summer home in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome. The chief beneficiary of his trip was probably Athenagoras. The fact that the Pope chose to visit him unquestionably helped bolster his prestige within Orthodoxy, in recent years, Athenagoras' position as spokesman for the church has been severely challenged, notably by the Patriarchate of Moscow and Chrysostomos, the retired Archbishop of Athens. And despite their distaste for the Patriarch, it was unlikely that the Turks would do anything to harass him further, at least for the time being. Athenagoras has buoyantly announced his intention of visiting Rome next month.

* In fact, there are scholars who lean toward the rival tradition that she died in Jerusalem.

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