Catholic world news
June 24 2004

Turkish bishops in historic meeting with premier

Ankara, Jun. 24 (FIDES/CWNews.com) – In a historic first, Turkey’s
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with the country’s
Catholic bishops, raising hopes for an eventual legal recognition of
the Catholic Church in that country, the Fides news service reports.

Erdogan met on June 21 with the bishops of the several Catholic
groups in Turkey, representing the Latin, Armenian, Chaldean, and
Syrian rites. The prelates asked the prime minister to consider
juridical recognition of the Catholic Church in Turkey.

The unprecedented meeting is a “milestone” for the life of the
Catholic Church in Turkey, Father George Marovich told Fides. Father
Marovich, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference, reported that
Prime Minister Erdogan sought the bishops’ help in securing Turkish
entry into the European Union, and expressed satisfaction when he was
reminded that the Turkish bishops have already joined with the
Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, a group bringing together
the Catholic bishops of the European Union nations.

Turkey has a population of 66 million, of whom 98 percent are Muslim.
Many Christians hide their faith, since Christians are not allowed to
sit in parliament or enter the military.

Among the country’s Christians, most are Orthodox, led by the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople– who is acknowledged as the
leading prelate of the Orthodox world, although his own flock is
relatively small.