ASIA/TURKEY - Bishop Padovese, a great loss for the Church

Iskenderun (Agenzia Fides) – "The death of Bishop Luigi Padovese is a great loss for the Church in Turkey and for the Universal Church," Fides was told by Fr. Hanry Leylek OfmCap, a Turkish Capuchin friar based in Mersin, in the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia and fellow brother in the Order of the Bishop killed yesterday in Iskenderun.
As Fr. Hanry tells Fides, the whole Church in Turkey is united to the local community in mourning. The funeral will be held tomorrow, June 5, at Immaculate Conception Church in Iskenderun, presided by Bishop Ruggero Franceschini of Smyrna, also a Capuchin friar.
"People cry and there are even some Muslims who cry. We have received messages of condolence and solidarity from all sides: from all the Christian communities in Turkey (Armenian Orthodox, Syrian, etc.) and local and national civil authorities," notes the friar.
"Bishop Padovese was my bishop and was a beloved colleague and esteemed by all. He was kind to the common people, as he was with the higher authorities. He was a good person. He worked for dialogue and reconciliation. He was an expert in Patristics, a person of great intellectual depth, but who maintained the humility typical of the Franciscan charism. We are still in disbelief and grieving. We miss him."
On the current conditions of Christians in Turkey, Fr. Hanry tells Fides: "Since the incident of the death of Fr. Andrea Santoro, there were positive changes. Although the government is mainly of Islamic religious parties, there has been a gradual opening to the Christian communities and their rights in recent years. Today, we are discussing church property and the juridical establishment of the Church (which has not yet been granted), and high-level political leaders agree to meet and listen to the bishops and Christian leaders."
As an example of this journey, and as a sign of hope for the future, Fr. Hanry cites "St. Paul's Church in Iskenderun, which had been converted into a cinema and just last week was returned to the use of the Syrian Catholic community, and was re-consecrated.”
Bishop Padovese, says the friar, was part of the Capuchin mission in Turkey, which has been present on Turkish soil for over 150 years. The Capuchins (currently ten) run the parish of Santo Stefano in Yesilkoy (near Istanbul), two in Izmir (Bayrakli and Hole), one in Mersin, one in Antioch, and a significant presence at the Shrine of Meryem Ana, at Ephesus.
The monks, he says, "live and work with the humility, joy, and simplicity of children of St. Francis. They live a frank dialogue, made gestures of solidarity, friendship, affection, esteem, and respect towards all, to proclaim the Good News with their lives even more so than with their words."
Christians in Turkey are now about 115,000, just 0.15% of the population, mostly concentrated in the cities of Istanbul, Izmir, and Mersin. Catholics are about 30,000 in all, mostly Latin Rite, but also Armenians, Syrians and Chaldeans. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 04/05/2010)