The Pope in Turkey

Benedict XVI is visiting Turkey in these very hours. He says: 'this is not a political trip.' What is it then?

John Paul II and Benedict XVI have vehemently insisted that Turkey should not join the European Union. They believe that Europe should be a christian club. This is not
an implicit deduction, this is the point Ratzinger makes quite explicitly in his book 'Whitout Roots.'

Now, the question I would raise to the Pope is: would you have anything against the enlargement of Europe to Turkey?

I stongly believe that the only possible way forwards is by letting Turkey in. It would send a very important sign to all the Muslim Europeans who are now struggling in Europe.

It would show as well that Europe is not, and cannot only reduce itself to, a Christian club. Europe is deeply plural; its christian roots are real, but only a side of a much more complicated picture