Pope says bishop’s killing not political, won’t cloud his pilgrimage to Cyprus

Pope: killing of bishop won’t cloud Cyprus trip

PAPHOS, Cyprus — Pope Benedict XVI said en route to Cyprus on Friday that he was deeply saddened by the killing of a Catholic bishop in Turkey but believed the killing was nonpolitical and would not cloud his pilgrimage.

Turkish officials have said Bishop Luigi Padovese was killed by his driver, who has been charged with murder and appears to be mentally ill.

The pope appeared to accept Turkey’s explanation about the killing, saying it was not “a political or religious assassination, it was something personal.”

“This has nothing to do with the themes and realities of this trip,” the pope told journalists en route to Cyprus. “We must not give responsibility to Turkey or the Turks.”

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Padovese’s killing shows the “difficult conditions” the Catholic community faces in the Middle East.

Cyprus, an island divided between ethnic Turks and Greeks, is viewed by the Vatican as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. The pope’s visit is expected to be a test of whether the pope has found his diplomatic feet after his linking of Islam to violence during a speech in Germany led to outrage in the Muslim world — and nearly forced the cancellation of a trip to Turkey in 2006.

The pope has meetings with church officials from across the region.

Cyprus police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said Friday that, while there was no heightened risk to Benedict’s safety following the bishop’s killing, security was stepped up anyway. He said that over 1,000 police will be mobilized for the entire duration of the visit.

The pope is meeting in Cyprus with prelates from the region to set an agenda for an October meeting in Rome to build a strategy to stem an exodus of Christians from the Holy Land, Iraq and elsewhere because of violence and economic hardship. The Middle East includes ancient Christian communities.

Benedict also faces issues on the division in Cyprus, splits in the Orthodox Christian community and concerns over damaged Christian and Muslim houses of worship. Cyprus was ethnically split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared an independent republic in the north in 1983, but only Turkey recognizes it and maintains 35,000 troops there.

The pope, speaking about the problems of both the division of Cyprus and the Middle East region as a whole, said that “violence is not the solution” and that everyone “must not lose patience” in the search for peaceful solutions.

The trip also comes days after the island’s leaders — Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and the newly elected president of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, Dervis Eroglu — resumed peace talks after a two-month pause.

There are no plans for Benedict or any other Vatican officials to visit northern Cyprus, Lombardi said. But he did not rule out a meeting with Muslim representatives.

The Cypriot ambassador to the Holy See, George F. Poulides, said Benedict will be staying at the Vatican Nunciature, located right on the so-called Green Line in Nicosia — the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone between bullet-pocked buildings and army sentry posts separating the ethnically divided communities.

There are also problems between Cypriot Catholics and Orthodox Christians, who are dominant in the south. Some hardline Orthodox clerics, who view the pope as a heretic, say Benedict should stay in Rome to avoid provoking the island’s 800,000 Orthodox.

Doctrinal, theological and political differences caused the Orthodox and Catholic churches to formally split in the 11th century. Officials from both churches have been engaged in talks in recent years to heal “The Great Schism,” but opposition to reconciliation still lingers.

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Associated Press writer Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed from Cyprus.