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Regular-article-logo Friday, 22 November 2024

Pope Francis pained by Hagia Sophia shift

Turkish President Erdogan has declared the monument was once again a mosque following a court ruling revoking its status as a museum

Reuters Vatican City Published 13.07.20, 12:30 AM
Erdogan said the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia would remain open to Muslims, Christians and foreigners.

Erdogan said the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia would remain open to Muslims, Christians and foreigners. Shutterstock

Pope Francis said on Sunday he was hurt by Turkey’s decision to make Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum a mosque, the latest religious leader to condemn the move.

“My thoughts go to Istanbul. I think of Santa Sophia and I am very pained,” he said during his weekly blessing in St Peter’s Square.

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said the first prayers would be held in Hagia Sophia on July 24, after declaring the ancient monument was once again a mosque following a court ruling revoking its status as a museum.

The World Council of Churches has called on Erdogan to reverse his decision and Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, called it disappointing.

Erdogan said the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia, which was once a Christian cathedral, would remain open to Muslims, Christians and foreigners.

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