Turkish government allows Christian worship in birthplace of St Paul

(July 20, 2009) The Turkish government has agreed to allow Christian worship once again, in a church in Tarsus, the birthplace of St Paul. Bishop Luigi Padovese, the head of Turkey’s Catholic Bishops' Conference hoped “the church in Tarsus could soon change from being a museum to a centre of spiritual pilgrimage.” The final ruling now lies with the local authorities in Tarsus itself, who can make the current provisional permission for ongoing services definitive. Bishop Padovese said the Turkish government had already given its consent for Christian services in the church after a record influx of 416 Christian pilgrim groups from 30 countries to Tarsus during the Year of St. Paul, which ended last month. St Paul's church, which appears on the UN World Heritage list, was confiscated by the Turkish government in 1943 for use as a state museum. It is currently also used under a government license for regular services by fee-paying Christian visitors. Turkey's 32,000-member Catholic Church asked Prime Minister Erdogan to permanently return the building, which was a focus for Christian culture until the regime of Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s.