On July 7-14, 2023, a commission met at the St. Maria Kilisesi Friary in the Büyükdere neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss requests made by two bishops to establish new Conventual Franciscan presences in Turkey. The commission members included the Custos of the Provincial Custody of the Orient and the Holy Land, Friar Anton BULAI; the Minister Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph, Spouse of the B.V.M. in Romania, Friar Damian G. PĂTRAȘCU; the Vicar General Friar Jan MACIEJOWSKI; and the Assistant General for the Federazione Intermediterranea Ministri Provinciali (FIMP), Friar Giovanni VOLTAN. They were assisted by the Custodial Definitor and Econom, Friar Julian PIŞTA.
The official requests of the bishops come as a strong incentive at the right time—a kairos moment, we hope— because part of the Custody’s 2022-26 Four-Year Plan was to be open to the possibility of erecting new friaries in Turkey and Lebanon. (Cf. Motion 1 of the 2022 Custodial Chapter: “a future vision that can foster missionary spirit, itinerancy and new forms of apostolate”). One of the requests came from the Most Reverend Massimiliano PALINURO, Apostolic Vicar of Istanbul. He asked us to establish a presence in Bursa, a large city with more than three million inhabitants. Bursa lies 160 kilometers [99 miles] from Istanbul. It is Turkey’s fourth largest city after Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir (Smyrna). It is hoped that the number of Catholics in Bursa will increase if a Franciscan community is founded there, one that can carry out interreligious dialogue and ecumenical dialogue with Protestants and Orthodox. It would be a new foundation in every sense.
The other request came from the Most Reverend Martin KMETEK, OFM Conv., Metropolitan Archbishop of Izmir and President of the CET (Turkish Episcopal Conference). He asked us to return to the St. Elena of Karşiyaka Friary and Parish, located in the old city of Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city with four million inhabitants. The friars left Izmir in 2014. After some discussion the commission met first with Bishop PALINURO and then with Bishop KMETEK. The commission visited both Bursa and Izmir, to inspect the possible friaries directly, and evaluate the pros and cons of each place from the pastoral, practical and financial perspective.
The commission traveled many kilometers and stopped at some truly fascinating places along the way. Not far from Bursa, they stopped at Nicaea (today Iznik) where the first Council took place in 325. The friars were moved to pray the Apostolic Creed where the basilica once stood. It is now submerged by a lake, but the remains of its foundation and perimeter are visible from the shore. The commission also stopped at Ephesus, near Smyrna, to visit the house of Mary, the Mother of the Lord. They were well received by the Capuchins, and prayed at the tomb of St. John the Evangelist, in the surreal silence of a grandiose basilica, now open to the sky since its destruction by a large earthquake. On the way back to Istanbul, the friars stopped at Pergamum, one of the churches in the Book of Revelation. They also visited Troy, to brush up on their Homer and see the ruins of the ancient city of which nine levels have been exposed thanks to the tenacity and expertise of Anglo-German archaeologists who have been working on the site since the nineteenth century. It gave us pause to recall, that the seven churches of the Book of Revelation, and others that once stood in this cradle of the apostolic Church are reduced to nothing but stones and ruins. As glorious as these sites are from the archaeological perspective, they are still ruins. However, some living stones yet remain: there is a minority of Christians here who are courageously carrying out their faith in this country.
At the end of the visit, the commission, in order to make an assessment and decide on a position, had a discussion with the Custodial Definitory about how to continue discernment on these matters. If the Custody, in sticking to what it wrote in its Four-Year Plan, considers accepting these new presences, the Mother Province of Romania and the Order can only bless and guide its choice. Thus the Custody will be able to inform the bishops of our decision. Whatever happens, it won’t be easy: the paperwork alone is a problem, and then there is the delicacy regarding the country’s political situation, as well as the difficulty in finding and/or freeing up friars who would like to be personally involved in this new adventure. Both of the bishops declared: “We ask you for an act of courage and faith!” In the end, what is most needed here, and perhaps especially here, as St. Paul teaches, is a passion for the Gospel within a clear and well-organized fraternal plan. May the Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary who, while entrusted to the Beloved Disciple, stayed in Ephesus, bless us. May the holy evangelizers of this blessed land of the Church: John, Paul, Polycarp, and the many others who gave witness to their faith in Christ with their blood, intercede for us!
Friar Giovanni VOLTAN
