Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Istanbul (Agenzia Fides) – After the Year of St. Paul, which has been “a year of grace,” new, encouraging prospects seem to appear on the horizon, in terms of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue in Turkey. This is what Fr. Ruben Tierrablanca, OFM, Superior of the International Franciscan Fraternity in Istanbul, said in commenting on the closing of the Year of St. Paul.
Fr. Ruben told Fides of the tasks and challenges that the Year of St. Paul has left to the Catholic community in Turkey. “Christians are made. This is valid in the case of Paul and this is the reality that drives us to renew our faith in Christ every day, placing all our human and spiritual resources at His disposition. The deep wounds of division among Christians, present in this land for a thousand years, greatly saddens us, but it also encourages us to carry out a more constant activity, although it may be long and slow-paced. As for ourselves, in the Catholic Church, in all her components and ritual traditions, we have been working together to bear witness to the fact that true unity in Christ is what will lead to a greater unity inside His Church. The challenge is great, but we are ready to face up to it.”
“Another grace of this year, definitely through the intercession of the Apostle Saint Paul, has been the opening of a multi-religious and multi-cultural world: we must continue to live our faith in openness to those who are with us, in fidelity to Christ, but also in fidelity to our fellow man. Preaching Christ and bearing witness to Him with our lives is our task, but without a desire to make statistics rise. It is Paul that plants, Paul that waters the seed, but it is God who makes it grow.”
Lastly, Fr. Tierrablanca noted, “there was a request we all received during this year, which was that of explaining with simplicity, but with clarity and profundity, the story of the Church from its origins and in its most significant moments, lived in this region of the world. We also shared our personal and ecclesial experience as Christians in Turkey, a country of Muslim majority. Now we want to responsibly and openly take up this challenge: bear witness of our hope to all those who ask it of us, according to Francis of Assisi: “...and confess being Christians.”
Father continued: “With all the believers in Christ, Lord and Savior of all humanity, we have lived the Year of St. Paul with various moments of intense renewal of our faith, through a constant reading of the story of his conversion to the Gospel in Damascus and his preaching, along with his ministry, especially in Asia Minor, this land where the Lord wants us to evangelize in this 21st Century. The visit to the various sites of Paul's ministry has made us live it with a profound ecclesial sense, beginning with the first community and the long story of Christianity.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides 14/7/2009)
