Pope Benedict XVI wants to visit the Muslim nation of Turkey in November but is waiting for the government in Ankara to agree to it, a Vatican cardinal said yesterday.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I invited Benedict to Istanbul for the Orthodox feast of St. Andrew at the end of November, but a formal invitation from the government in Ankara has not been forthcoming.
``He hopes he can go but now we are in talks with the government of Ankara, we have to agree about this thing,'' Cardinal Walter Kasper, Benedict's top ecumenical official, told reporters Thursday.
The Turkish government refused to immediately comment.
As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pope questioned whether the European Union should open its doors to predominantly Muslim Turkey. He said in a newspaper interview that Turkish membership might be incompatible with European culture.
Asked if that could be an obstacle to a Turkish visit, Kasper said the pope's comments were a ``private phrase, not an official position of the Holy See.''
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