Popes on the Bosphorus

(Vatican Radio) The last Roman Pontiff to visit Turkey before Pope Francis, was Benedict XVI, now pope emeritus. On this occasion Benedict highlighted the key role played by Saint John XXIII in establishing relations between the Holy See and Turkey.

Turkey was a nation the future pope, then Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, had learnt to love while he served as papal representative to this nation. That was from 1934 to 1945, previous to his appointment as papal nuncio to Paris. As he wrote in his diary 'Journal of a soul', he felt he had much to learn from the Turkish people. Certainly this experience on the Bosphorus had a huge impact on him in terms of his approach to  ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue.

Listen to 'Popes on the Bosphorus' a programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: 

On one occasion he writes in his diary: "We have a duty to be like the fishermen of the Bosphorus. Every evening from the window of my room I see an assemblage of boats. They come round from the Golden Horn in tens and hundreds, they gather at a given rendez-vous and then they light up some more brilliantly than others, offering a most impressive spectacle of colours and lights...The other night, towards one o'clock it was pouring with rain but the fishermen were still there, undeterred from their heavy toil. Oh how ashamed we should be, we fishers of men before such an example...We must do as the fishermen of the Bosphorus do, work day and night, with our torches lit, each in his own little boat, at the orders of our spiritual leaders. That is our grave and solemn duty".

In this programme you can hear some audio clips from our Vatican Radio archives of Benedict XVI as he speaks of John XXIII as well as of the pope of the First World War, Benedict XV, recorded during his visit to Turkey in November 2006.

And on a less official note the witness of former Vatican diplomat, the late Monsignor Charles Burton Mouton, who in an interview with Veronica Scarisbrick shares a personal story of the discovery not without emotion, while staying in Roncalli's former summer house, of a book with the future pope's hand written footnotes!