The president of Greece called
Pope Francis on Monday urging the Pope to advocate for the preservation
of the status quo regarding Hagia Sophia, which is due to be reverted to
a mosque this week.
In a phone call on July 20, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou
told the Pope that Turkey’s decision “deeply hurts those who consider
this top symbol of Christianity to belong to humanity and the world’s
cultural heritage,” according to a statement from the president’s
office.
She said that the move should be “explicitly and unequivocally
condemned” by the international community, and asked Pope Francis to
help garner international support so that the Turkish leadership revokes
its decision and restores Hagia Sophia to the status of a protected
monument.
According to the Greek government communiqué, Pope Francis
acknowledged the political motives of Turkish president Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan’s decision, which Sakellaropoulou described as diverting Turkey
from the values of the secular state and the principles of tolerance and
pluralism.
The Pope also expressed his gratitude to Greece for its efforts in
receiving refugees and migrants, and said he hoped that conditions would
allow him to act on the president’s invitation to visit the country in
2021.
I asked @Pontifex to use his influence to raise the awareness of the international community about the conversion of #HagiaSophia into a mosque. I stressed that this decision by Turkey undermines the foundations of tolerance and deepens the rift between cultures and religions.— President GR (@PresidencyGR) July 20, 2020
The Greek president’s call came after reports that President Erdoğan
had invited Pope Francis to be a guest at the July 24 ceremony reopening
Hagia Sophia as the Ayasofya Mosque.
Hagia Sophia is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and the former
cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Istanbul. It was founded in 537 under the
Emperor Justinian.
For a time it was the biggest building in the world and the largest
Christian church. It served as the cathedral of the Patriarch of
Constantinople before and after the Great Schism split Western and
Eastern Christianity.
After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the cathedral
was converted into a mosque. Under the Ottomans, architects added
minarets and buttresses to preserve the building, but the mosaics
showing Christian imagery were whitewashed and covered.
In 1934, under the leadership of President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the
founder of modern Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the
mosque was turned into a museum.
The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a museum was considered a symbol
of the Atatürk government’s commitment to building a secular republic.
Mosaics were uncovered, including depictions of Christ, the Virgin Mary,
John the Baptist, Justinian I, and the Byzantine Empress Zoë
Porphyrogenita.
When the museum reopens for worship as a mosque, it is believed that
the mosaics will have to be covered during Muslim prayers, as well as
the seraph figures located in the high basilica dome.
Pope Francis has previously expressed sadness following Turkey’s
decision to convert the former Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia back
into a mosque.
The pope spoke out two days after Erdoğan signed a decree July 10
turning the sixth-century edifice into an Islamic place of worship.
“And the sea carries me a little farther away in my thoughts: to
Istanbul. I think of Hagia Sophia, and I am very saddened,” Pope Francis
said in his Angelus address on July 12.