“Cyprus is an appropriate place in which to launch our church’s reflection on the place of the centuries-old Catholic community in the Middle East, [and] our solidarity with all the Christians of the region,” said Benedict after arriving at Paphos airport in eastern Cyprus, where he was welcomed by the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Demetris Christofias.
Christians in the Middle East, said the Pope, “have an irreplaceable role to play in peace and reconciliation among its peoples.” Welcoming Benedict, Christofias referred to Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974, which led to the division of the island into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south.
The mainly-Greek Republic of Cyprus is internationally recognized and is a member of the European Union. Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus, which Benedict will not be visiting. All attempts to reunify the island have so far failed.
The pope’s visit has been overshadowed in part by the June 3 killing of Bishop Luigi Padovese, president of the Catholic bishops’ conference in Turkey, who had been due to travel to Cyprus for a meeting between Benedict and Catholic bishops from the Middle East.
The Vatican has said that it does not believe political considerations were behind the killing, for which the bishop’s driver has been charged with murder.
After his reception at the airport, the Benedict XVI travelled to Paphos city, where he was welcomed by Archbishop Chrysostomos II, head of the (Orthodox) Church of Cyprus, who visited the Vatican in 2007.
About 80 percent of the 700 000 people in the Republic of Cyprus are Orthodox Christians. Catholics — Latins and Maronites — account for slightly
more than 3 percent.
In the church of Agia Kyriaki, Benedict noted that his visit coincided with the 100th anniversary of a World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is widely seen as marking the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement for church unity. “The Church of Cyprus, which serves as a bridge between East and West, has contributed much to the process of reconciliation between the churches,” said the pope. “The path leading to the goal of full communion will certainly not be without its difficulties, yet the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Cyprus are committed to advancing in the way of dialogue and fraternal cooperation.”
Cyprus media have reported that though many Orthodox lay people and clergy in the island have welcomed the papal visit, some groups, and some pilgrims who have arrived from Greece for the occasion, are opposed to it.
Bishop Athanasios of Limassol, “embarrassed the [Orthodox] church eager to silence agitators,” by calling the Pope a “heretic”, the Nicosia-based Cyprus Weekly reported.
As well as meeting Orthodox church leaders, Benedict is to deliver to a meeting of Middle East Catholic bishops a working document for a synod of the bishops due to take place in Rome in October. Cypriot and Vatican flags are flying on the streets of Nicosia but the visit is described as having, so far, a low profile.
During his Cyprus visit, Benedict will stay at a Franciscan monastery in Nicosia on land controlled by United Nations peacekeeping forces, and which
lies between the two parts of the island.
The UN force controls the “green line” that runs through Nicosia, which has been divided since 1974. “We are on a frontier line,” Italian Franciscan
Umberto Barato of the Holy Cross Church in Nicosia, was quoted as saying by the Cyprus Mail.
Strong security measures are in force, with the Cyprus Weekly reporting that
about 1000 police officers are expected to be deployed to ensure security for the papal visit in, “one of the island’s biggest ever security lockdowns”.
