“We currently stand next to the Hagia Sophia mosque,” so said Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc last month during a dedication of a museum of Caucasus rugs and carpets next to…
Tag: ecumenical patriarchate
ISTANBUL — In this ancient city, there are few sights more iconic than the dome of the Hagia Sophia, towering over the old city for more than 1,400 years. But recent conversions…
Vatican City, 30 November 2013 (VIS) – Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is leading a delegation sent by the Holy See to Istanbul to participate…
“We are not resigned to imagine a Middle East without Christians,” Pope Francis told Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch of the Greek-Melkites. On the feast day of Saint Andrew, a thought…
The decision to meet in Jerusalem in the spring of 2014 is particularly important coming on the 50th anniversary of the historic embrace between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. “We…
Bülent Arinç, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, said that the famed Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul should again become a mosque – prompting a sharp reaction from Greece’s foreign ministry. Dedicated in 537,…
Istanbul (Agenzia Fides) – The ancient monastery of Saint John of Stoudios, currently classified as a museum complex, will be transformed into a mosque in 2014, once the restoration work in progress are…
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinc again hinted at the imminent possibility of reopening the Islamic worship, the Ayasofya Museum in Istanbul. This was announced by Turkish press sources consulted by Fides…
Upon his election to the chair of bishop of Rome in March of this year, Pope Francis announced his intention for a personal meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the…
Warsaw, November 15, 2013 (Zenit.org) | Here is the text of the message sent by Patriarch Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, to those attending the 19th Session of the Conference of the…