The mystery of that Shroud of Turin the alleged shroud of Jesus, has to be solved for this Pope Leo XIV. during his tightly scheduled program in Istanbul no time. Legend has it that the cloth was hidden in Constantinople for several centuries, until the Crusades in the 13th century. This cannot be proven, but many Catholic churches in the city on the Bosphorus claim the story as their own.
Pope Leo XIV did not choose an easy destination for his first trip abroad: Muslims make up the majority in Turkey. “99 percent of the population is Muslim,” emphasizes Präsident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gladly who does not shy away from the political instrumentalization of Islam and who is one leadership role in the Islamic world. He assigns a leading role to the Sunni interpretation, to which, according to estimates, around 88 percent of the population belongs – alongside minorities such as the Alevis and Yazidis.
Persecuted and expelled
The number of Christen in Turkey is negligible, and the Roman Catholic minority is even smaller than the Orthodox: according to unofficial estimates, there are people living in Turkey 60.000 Armenian, 15.000 Syrian Orthodox Christians, up to 4.000 Greek Orthodox, 2,500 Roman Catholic Christians and 2,500 Protestants. At the end of the 19th century, in the Ottoman Empire, there were still more than two millionthey made up a quarter of the population. But that one genocide on the Armenians and Assyrians, the expulsion the Greeks and the population exchange during and after the First World War caused them to disappear or emigrate.
What remains is the feeling of not being perceived as belonging to the Turkish population. The Catholic Church has in Türkiye because of what is enshrined in the constitution Laicism no legal status Building belong either to foreign representations or to the Turkish state, which in theory does not have to make them available to the church. The issue even concerns the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Financial support There are almost none from the state religious authority. Pastors and religious teachers are not allowed to be trained by the churches; theology can only be studied at Islamic theological faculties. For a long time Christians were considered… Traitor to the country seen who belong to Christianity for economic reasons – in strict Islam interest is rejected.
Pope Leo XIV started his visit to Ankara with a visit to the mausoleum of the state’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Its Türkiye followed a nationalist, secular orientation in which religious minorities were not granted any explicit rights. Catholic representatives and Christian NGOs say that the situation only improved under President Erdoğan – especially during his time as prime minister in the early 2000s, when EU accession was still on the table. But today Erdoğan is making politics with Islam.
Politicization of Islam
In 2013 he repealed the decree issued by Atatürk Ban on headscarves for women in public service – which won him support from female voters and ultra-nationalists alike. The small right-wing extremist and Islamist parties MHP and YRP, which support him in parliament, see the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, who has his official residence in Istanbul, as a representative of the Greeks – once an enemy of Turkey. The Pope will meet him in Istanbul on Friday.
Also the controversial decision Hagia Sophia into one mosque transform back, goes back to Erdoğan. Since then, the Christian mosaics and frescoes visible from the prayer room have been covered up in the former church.
Lutes criticism Church representatives are rarely heard from – partly for fear of intimidation. A IS attack at a Catholic church in Istanbul in January 2024 heightened fears of growing hostility toward Christians in Turkey.
The Pope also remained reserved on his trip; his joint appearance with Erdoğan was unspectacular. Common interests were invoked – for example Peace in the Middle East. Pope Leo XIV’s message of hope and unity is also reflected in the other program items: In He visits Istanbul Blue Mosque.