Pope and Patriarch ponder an EU-member Turkey

ISTANBUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) Pope Benedict and the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians said today minority rights must be protected as the EU expands and appeared to jointly support Turkish membership if it protected religious liberties.

In a common declaration after a prayer service, Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew rejected the concept of killing in God's name, denounced terrorism and re-committed their Churches to the quest for unity and condemned violence in the Holy Land.

Such declarations usually stick to theological issues so it was politically significant that the two specifically mentioned the European Union Turkey is negotiating to join.

''We have viewed positively the process that has led to the formation of the European Union,'' the statement said.

''In every step towards unification, minorities must be protected, with their cultural traditions and the distinguishing features of their religion,'' adding that all members had to respect human rights and religious freedom.

The EU wants Turkey to ensure full religious freedom for its non-Muslim minorities. This means giving them legal status including property rights, so they can operate freely as institutions, and allowing them to run their own schools.

There are only 120,000 Christians, about 30,000 of them Catholic, in Turkey today, compared to two million a century ago.

It said Europe must remain open to other religions and cultures while preserving its own Christian values.

Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, strongly supports Turkey's membership in the EU and two days ago the Pope did an about-face from his previous opposition to Ankara's bid.

Benedict and Bartholomew earlier held a solemn prayer service in the incense-filled Church of St. George and spoke of the need to end the ''scandalous'' divisions among Christians.

TIGHT SECURITY Benedict's visit has been marked by some of the tightest security ever seen for a foreign visitor. A few dozen supporters of a nationalist Islamist party protested against the Pope outside Istanbul University under heavy police guard.

During the Byzantine rite service, dotted by gestures of bowing, crossing, the waving of crucifixes and kissing of chalices, white-bearded Bartholomew spoke of another step on ''the unwavering journey toward the restoration of full communion among our Churches''.

The Western and Eastern branches of Christianity split in the Great Schism of 1054 over differences on theology and papal authority. Dialogue aimed at reunion began in earnest in 1965 when both sides lifted mutual excommunications imposed in 1054.

The morning meeting in Fener, the old Greek quarter that hosts Bartholomew's compound, temporarily shifted the focus of the Pope's trip back into the Christian side of the court after his conciliatory words about Islam.

Benedict continues his fence-mending with Muslims by visiting Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. Before that, he will go to the nearby Aya Sofya, once Christianity's largest church known by its Greek name Hagia Sophia (Church of Holy Wisdom).

On conquering the city in 1453, Sultan Mehmet went to the church and prayed, turning it into a mosque. As part of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's drive to modernise Turkey, it was secularised and turned into a museum in 1934.

Nationalist and Islamist Turks will be watching to see if Benedict commits the unlikely faux pas of praying in the museum.

Pope Paul VI did so in 1967, causing a diplomatic incident, but Pope John Paul II did not when he was there in 1979.

REUTERS AB PM1746