TURKEY: DIALOGUE BETWEEN ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY

VATICAN CITY, DEC 7, 2001 (VIS) - John Paul II today received the Letters of Credence of Filiz Dincmen, the new Turkish ambassador to the Holy See.

Speaking English in his address, the Pope said that after a millennium of not always untroubled relations between Turkey and the Holy See, "the twentieth century saw fresh attempts to build a constructive relationship, based upon trust and respect."

"Recent events make it clear that such cooperation is all the more necessary when new conflicts, of which there are not a few in your region, are added to older ones. At a time when there is a risk of increasing tension between different cultural and religious traditions, your country has a particular role to play."

The Holy Father stressed that "when the cause of peace must be served by promoting dialogue between the religious cultures of the world, in particular between Islam and Christianity, the international community looks hopefully to your nation."

The Pope recalled that certain rights "are universal because they are rooted in the nature of the human person rather than in the particularities of any culture," and said that one of these rights "is religious freedom, which includes but goes beyond freedom to worship as one chooses; for religion cannot be relegated to the purely private realm. In a secular state which is open to the transcendent, religious freedom also includes the right to bring personal values to bear upon public life, in the belief that these values contribute to the common effort to build a society genuinely open to every dimension of the human person.

"In Turkey," he affirmed, "Catholics are a small minority. ... They are confident that in their homeland they will continue to find respect for minorities. ... This too is a point where Turkey can serve as a bridge, by making clear that justifiable concerns for national unity are not in conflict with respect for the rights of individuals and minorities. On the contrary, it is this respect, sanctioned by law, which is the surest guarantee of a nation's cohesion and security."

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