Word: benedict
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Early last week, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had reason to be optimistic. During a meeting in Ankara, Pope Benedict XVI said he was in favor of Turkey joining the European Union. This reversed an opinion he had delivered previously as a Cardinal, saying the move would be "a grave error against history." But the good news was short-lived. Just days after the Pope's remarks, Olli Rehn, the E.U.'s Commissioner for Enlargement, recommended that the E.U. suspend a portion of Turkey's membership talks just 13 months after they began. The reason: Turkey's continued unwillingness...
...Pope to show goodwill to people of other faiths is to pray in their holy places. In Istanbul last week, Benedict XVI unexpectedly replicated a signature gesture by John Paul II in Jerusalem in 2000. Both won praise for their irenic moves...
...Pope Benedict...
...Gestures: Benedict's participation at the Orthodox liturgy on Thursday at the Phanar, the headquarters of the Patriarch of Constantinople, was yet another sign of how little actually stands between the Churches' spiritual unification. Afterwards, the Pope and the Patriarch appeared on a balcony overlooking a courtyard and joined hands and raised them, with the more gregarious Bartholomew triumphantly pumping the interlocked hands toward the worshipers below. The crowd of mostly Orthodox applauded in yet another sign of the diffused desire for unity...
...Tally: Although Benedict clearly wants a closer communion with the Orthodox as a historical trophy for his reign, he is still only at the starting line...