Mgr. Ruggero Franceschini, archbishop of Izmir and apostolic administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia, is the new president of the Turkish Bishops Conference (Cet). He was appointed at the end of the plenary meeting of the Bishops on September 16th. Mgr. Franceschini replaces mgr. Luigi Padovese, murdered in Iskenderun on June 3rd. During such assembly, Cet appointed mgr. Georges Khazzoum president of “Caritas Turkey”. In commenting with SIR on his new appointment, which he had already held in the past, mgr. Franceschini said “he serves with great peace of mind this office in which I will ask for many people’s help. I am lucky to have great assistants whom I will rely on. I will also ask for the assistance of my brethren. We know we are a small group; the Bishops Conference needs to be supported, materially as well as spiritually”. “We have great problems with our presence and with the number of priests – the prelate added –. If we fail to maintain this presence, we will end up slowly taking this small community of ours into oblivion. We do not want this, and we will do all we can to avoid it. We should not forget that the Church was born in Turkey and that it is here that it gave itself a deep theological reorganisation, which still informs our choices through such Fathers of the Church as Irenaeus, Basilius, Cyril of Alexandria, Polycarp… We do not want to miss out on these roots”. “The appeal for help I made from Milan’s Cathedral at the funeral of mgr. Padovese – mgr. Franceschini recalls – was immediately taken up by card. Tettamanzi, who sent me some priests. We have to rely on all these people, such as the archbishop of Milan, who understand our distress. We have just had a political referendum in Turkey and we hope this can truly mean a step forward for this nation”.
Mgr. Franceschini then announced that the Turkish Catholic bishops (they will be 5) will take part in the Episcopal Synod for the Middle East (Vatican, 10-24 October), which mgr. Padovese had largely helped organise. The new president of Cet sends one last thought to mgr. Padovese and to the investigations into his death: “Our lawyers and the Italian Consulate in Ismir gave us the news two days ago that the investigations are still going on and so there is no talk of a trial yet. In this respect, I wish a “real trial” be held, not because we nurse any grudge, that’s out of the question, but because we do not want the case to be hurriedly dismissed. The heal must be treated as it should, not by hiding it. Justice must do its course. I am very confident in the Turkish Justice Minister who promised me ‘all the truth but only the truth’. We do not ask for merciful lies but for the truth, in mutual respect. We are confidently waiting”.


© SIR - september, 17th 2010