Unprecedented representation of world religions at pope’s funeral
By LOUIS MEIXLER
AP Worldstream
Apr 08, 2005
He was the first pope to visit a mosque and pray at Judaism’s holiest
site, and he returned the relics of revered Orthodox Christian saints.
In death, John Paul II continues to set precedents: His funeral is
attracting religious and political leaders whose faiths were never
represented at such a high level at previous papal burials.
John Paul II ushered in “the globalization of religion,” said
John Esposito, founding director of the Georgetown Center for
Muslim-Christian Understanding. “He increased exponentially the
dialogue with … people of all faiths.”
Friday will mark the first time the leaders of Orthodox Christianity
and the Armenian Apostolic Church have ever attended a pope’s
funeral. Iran and Syria are sending their presidents, and Israel is
dispatching its foreign minister and an important rabbi _ top levels
of representation never before seen at papal obsequies.
The funeral is making its mark even in places where the pope has
virtually no following. In Turkey, a country where only a handful of
the population is Roman Catholic, the national police have canceled
celebrations of the force’s 160th anniversary. Turkey’s flag, which
features the crescent, a symbol of Islam, will fly at half mast Friday
to honor the pope.
“Not only was he the leader of the Catholic world, he was also the
leader for peace and dialogue between religions,” Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday before flying to Rome to
attend the funeral. “Even toward the end, at the height of his ill
health, he relentlessly worked toward that goal.”
Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey’s top Islamic cleric, said he shared “the
grief of Catholics worldwide.”
The pope’s ability to bridge the divide between religions was aided
by his common touch and keen understanding of the power of symbolism,
which inspired even those who sharply disagreed with him on issues
of faith. Many people seemed to warm to the pope and regard him as
genuinely holy even if they did not share his religious beliefs.
The note he slipped into a crack in the Western Wall apologizing to
God for the suffering of Jews over the centuries has been preserved
in Israel’s national Holocaust museum.
The gesture marked a crucial change from Pope Paul VI’s visit to Israel
in 1964, when the Jewish state and the Vatican were so distant that
the pope traveled only to Christian holy sites and never mentioned
Israel by name.
The pontiff’s contribution to religious tolerance “will be with us
for many years,” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the
start of a Cabinet meeting last week.
For many Muslims, a key symbolic moment was when the pope stood in the
ancient Omayyad Mosque in Damascus in 2001 and appealed to Christians
and Muslims to seek common ground rather than confrontation.
For the world’s 300 million Orthodox, the pope’s landmark apology
for Roman Catholic wrongs against Orthodox Christians and his return
of the relics of two Orthodox saints were key moments that no doubt
made it possible for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I _ leader of
the world’s Orthodox Christians _ to attend the funeral.
“Pope John Paul II envisioned the restoration of the unity of the
Christians and he worked for its realization,” said Bartholomew. “His
death is a loss not only to his Church, but to all of Christianity
as well, and to the international community in general, who desires
peace and justice.”
John Paul’s global reach is due in part to the fact that he was
history’s most traveled pope _ logging 723,723 miles (1,164,665
kilometers), or three times the distance to the moon. Critically, his
message was reinforced by a modern media able to beam his smiling image
to millions of homes _ a context which no previous papacy enjoyed.
“Pope John Paul in many ways became a leader and symbol to a degree
that no pope in the past could achieve,” Esposito said. “It is a
product of the man … but also the fact that with globalization of
travel and communications he could play that role.”
Key religious leaders at the funeral will include Bartholomew,
the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church Catholicos Karekin II,
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Lebanon’s Maronite Christian
Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni of
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, and Shear-Yishuv
Cohen, the chief rabbi of the Israeli city of Haifa. Teoctist, the
90-year-old patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church was planning
to attend but will not because he has the flu.
There are some who will not be joining in the mourning.
“How can the death of a non-Muslim be a loss to the Muslim
world?” asked Gamal Sultan, an Egyptian Islamic activist and editor
of Al-Manar, a journal that serves as a mouthpiece of Islamic
fundamentalists.
Although Israel is sending its foreign minister, the country’s two
chief rabbis are not attending. And Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s
holiest shrines, has not announced it will send anyone.
Left open by the death of the pope is whether his legacy of promoting
interfaith dialogue will continue.
“A lot depends on the next pope,” Esposito said, but added: “There
is a momentum there and part of that momentum cannot be reversed.”