Word: turkeys
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...Surrounded by sharpshooters perched in olive groves, the pontiff delivered mass at the Shrine of Mary in western Turkey Wednesday, and said: "I turn to ... the little flock of Christ living in [Turkey's] midst to offer a word of encouragement and to manifest the affection of the whole church...
...Leading the ceremony, Patriarch Bartolomew I is in the strange position of a shepherd without a flock. In the decades since Turkey's independence in 1923, his Greek Orthodox community has dwindled from around 150,000 to 1,500 people, most of them elderly. And his role as spiritual head to Orthodox Christians worldwide has been curtailed, critics say, by Turkish restrictions...
...Chief among Greek Orthodox grievances is the closure of a seminary to train priests on Halki island, just off Istanbul. Turkey closed the school in 1971 in line with strict secular laws that prohibit private religious higher education. Priests are currently trained in the U.S. and Greece. "Sure we can train priests elsewhere," says Karioutsos, "You can train a Catholic priest anywhere in the world, but training at the Vatican is completely different. We have a strong spiritual and historic connection here...
...Another ongoing bone of contention between Turkey and the Orthodox community is Ankara's refusal to recognise the patriarch as ecumenical, meaning head of the Orthodox Christian community worldwide. Turkey believes acknowledging this would be one step towards the patriarchate eventually demanding some form of autonomy on its territory, much like the Vatican. "The title ecumenical has accompanied the Patriarch for 15 centuries, it's not a 20th century invention," says Archbishop Demetrios of America. "It refers to a spiritual function...
...Orthodox church is hoping that Turkey's possible entry into the European Union will help give minority religions some political leverage. But given the increasing tension in relations between the E.U. and Turkey, the pronouncements of Benedict and Bartholomew will face intense scrutiny...