Word: popes
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...Popes don't go on trips, they make pilgrimages. Pope John Paul II turned these spiritual journeys into worldwide media events, from his first return to his Polish homeland to the masses he conducted before millions in the Philippines and his Millennial-year arrival in the Holy Land. Though lacking some of the same flair, Benedict XVI's first four outings beyond Italian soil have largely followed similar pilgrimesque itineraries: warming up to a million young Catholics at World Youth Day in Cologne, paying homage to his predecessor in Poland, trying to turn back a wave of Spanish secularism...
...visit, as Turkey is both 98% Muslim and the historic home of a competing Eastern branch of Christianity. Everything, of course, will be amplified in the wake of Benedict's now famous September speech about faith and violence that simultaneously angered much of the Islamic world and made the Pope an important new voice in the global debate on the simmering clash of civilizations. Though the word "Islam" may not appear in many of his speeches, it is undoubtedly part of the subtext of the entire voyage...
...Ankara with Turkey's head of religious affairs, Ali Bardakoglu, will be a chance for Benedict to try to definitively close the two-month fallout from his provocative remarks about Islam and the prophet Muhammad during a lecture at a German university. Many have tried to predict what the Pope might say about Islam, but most Vatican sources assure TIME that the Turkey trip will most definitely not be the occasion for a provocative follow-up to his University of Regensburg speech. Taking a cue from his predecessor, Benedict will try instead to speak with symbolic gestures. He has sought...
...more interesting discourses may very well be about relations with the Orthodox, common Christian identity, and, notably, about Turkey's aspirations to join the European Union. There were signs over the weekend that the Pope may be planning to tweak the position he'd set out while still Cardinal in 2004, when he'd suggested Turkey's history and culture put it "in permanent contrast to Europe." Several top Vatican officials have said in recent days that they would welcome Turkey into the E.U. if it met all the requirements that have been set out by Brussels. This opening...
...hosts are taking no chances in preparing for events that may not be on the Pope's itinerary. The focus on security has sharpened after an anti-Pope rally by a right-wing Muslim group in Istanbul on Sunday, as well as an incident last week when dozens of protesters invaded the Sophia Hague, a former Orthodox Church due to be visited by the pontiff. Vatican officials say they trust the Turkish authorities to protect Pope Benedict, though all expect at least some form of public dissent. Sometimes, the choice of ground transportation can say as much about a papal...