MEETING OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE WITH TURKEY'S DIYANET - Vatican Information Service

This is relevant not just for Christian-Muslim Dialogue, and the Holy See's relations with Turkey in respect of the Latin Roman Catholic Church community in Turkey, it also has bearings on ecumenical engagement with the Ecumenical Patriarchate  - and the Syriac Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Church communities in Turkey - in common engagement with civil society. This is especially so in a secular republic that is inconsistent in its attitude to Christianity within its territory, especially Greek Orthodoxy, as well as unresolved as to its relation more widely to Islam, the religion followed by most of the population.

Vatican City, 8 May 2014 (VIS) – The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, along with the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Turkey (Diyanet) has organised a meeting to explore the possibility of collaboration between the two entities, as proposed in 2002. The meeting will take place in the premises of the above dicastery during these days.

In September 2012, Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, during an interview in Turkey with the president of Diyanet, aired the idea of relaunching a proposal for collaboration. Therefore, in May 2013, along with Msgr. Khaled Akasheh, head of the Islamic Department, he will pay a courtesy visit to the president of Diyanet, Mehmet Gormez, in order to establish the terms of a formal collaboration between the two entities.

The meeting will offer the opportunity to deepen mutual knowledge and to evaluate further perspectives for dialogue.

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