Turkey should use Pope’s visit to improve image of Islam

Pope Francis will be visiting Turkey this weekend. This will be his sixth trip outside of Italy after he became pope in 2013. The fact that Turkey ranks among the first countries that Pope Francis is visiting already tells us a lot.

But let’s ask simply: Why is he coming?

First of all, we owe the visit to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. The pope needs two invitations to hold visits outside of Italy, one of which has to come from the church. Here, we are not just talking about a simple official invitation extended by Bartholomew. A special relationship has been forged with the Pope by Patriarch Bartholomew, who attended Pope Francis’ inauguration and thus became the first head of the Eastern Orthodox Church to attend a papal enthronement since the great schism (the official division of the two churches in 1054).

Patriarch Bartholomew used the 50th anniversary of a historic meeting to end the division to further consolidate relations between the two churches. For those who might be unfamiliar with the issue, let me recall that the two churches started to mend their fences only after 1964, when Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem. So, upon the initiative of Patriarch Bartholomew, both he and Pope Francis went to Jerusalem last May to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that historic meeting. It was only natural for Patriarch Bartholomew to invite Pope Francis to Turkey, and Nov. 30 is not just any other day: It is St. Andrew’s Day, which honors Andrew, who conducted missionary work around the Black Sea.

The Turkish state has never wanted to accept or highlight the importance of the Ecumenical Patriarch, who is first in honor among all Eastern Orthodox bishops. But the fact that the Patriarchate is...