Turkey urged to ease up on Greek Orthodox seminary

[rug]

The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Jul. 5, 2012 - 5:55 am

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's top Muslim cleric has supported calls for the government to allow the reopening of a Greek Orthodox seminary.

Mehmet Gormez said that Thursday after meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I during the first visit by a Turkish religious leader to the Istanbul-based Patriarchate since 1923.

Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, said he hopes Halki Theological School will be allowed to reopen on Heybeliada Island near Istanbul.

The school stopped admitting new students in 1971 under a Turkish law that put religious and military training under state control and closed in 1985.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/05/4611189/turkey-urged-to-ease-up-on-greek.html#storylink=cpy

[tjwmason]

1. This is a significant black-mark against Turkey

For a country to claim a modern attitude to religious freedom and not allow a seminary is utterly contradictory.

It also has a potential long-term impact on the whole of Orthodoxy, Turkish law requires that the Oecumenical Patriarch be Turkish...yet refuses to allow his eventual successors to be trained in Turkey.

[rug]

2. I didn't know the Patriarch must be Turkish by law.

Thanks for the info.