[Editor's note: This coverage of the pope's visit to Istanbul is made possible by exclusive arrangement with Inside the Vatican Magazine. To hear an interview with Dr. Robert Moynihan, visit CE Today with John Morales.]
How can one end a story that has no ending?
Simply by saying that the story continues.
Of course, this story does have a sort of ending, in that Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass here in Istanbul yesterday morning, then left Turkey, ending his four-day trip.
But the issues raised and the problems touched upon by this trip remain open: relations between Catholics and Orthodox, between Christians and Muslims, between Europe and Turkey.
And so the story of Benedict's trip to Turkey remains open-ended. The words and actions of these days will bear their fruits in due season.
So what is the key issue now?
It is to see how the seeds planted here grow, how they are watered and tended as they mature.
Pope Benedict, in his homily at the Mass on November 30, said the effort to bring the separated Christian Churches together, East and West, Orthodox and Catholic, was the chief goal of his visit, imitating the work of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, brothers called by Christ to leave their work as fishermen to become "fishers of men."
That call reveals much about the mind of Christ. He did not call them to create structures. He did not call them to build churches. He did not call them to delineate parishes or dioceses or patriarchates. He called them to catch men.
Their work was to propose to men and women a "good news" so attractive that those men and women would become different, filled with a new spirit, and being so transformed, would create the necessary preconditions for a more just, peaceful, and loving world.
And how did Peter and Andrew act?
They acted with courage. They risked everything. They left their ordinary work and took on a work which they did not anticipate, a work which was given to them by Christ. And they carried out that work even unto death – unto deaths on crosses, one crucified head down, the other crucified on a cross shaped like an X.
There are many in the Churches today who are giving lip-service to this work of Christian reunion.
Many Catholics, many Orthodox, are saying that they would like the day of full reunion to come soon.
But few are ready to act courageously, as Pope Benedict acted this week.
Few are ready to give up vested interests for the sake of a larger vision.
The Orthodox world itself is not united.
How can one end this part of the story of Benedict XVI's trip to Istanbul? By noting a simple fact: that what is needed now is sufficient vision to transcend old ways of thinking, old interests, and truly undertake the building of the kingdom of God, by becoming once again "fishers of men."
