Greek prime minister COVID-positive day after Istanbul visit
Greece’s prime minister says he has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be self-isolating at home, a day after meeting in Istanbul with Turkey’s President Recep Tayip Erdogan and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, considered the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
Pompeo meets Orthodox spiritual leader in Istanbul
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, speaks with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, before departing the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)ISTANBUL – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians on Tuesday during a short trip to Turkey that raised the ire of Turkish officials and included no meetings with any of them. They said meetings had been sought, but Turkish officials were unable to come to Istanbul from the capital, Ankara, during the time Pompeo would be there. Turkish media reports said Turkish officials were giving Pompeo the cold shoulder, after he allegedly refused to travel to the capital to pay an official visit. A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official wouldn't comment on the reports or say why Pompeo wasn’t meeting with Turkish officials.
Turkey offended by Pompeo's plan to discuss religious issues
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a media briefing, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, at the State Department in Washington. The top U.S. diplomat plans to discuss religious issues in Turkey and to promote “our strong stance on religious freedom around the world,” the statement read. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry rebuked the statement “as extremely inappropriate,” insisting that the country protects the rights of citizens of various faiths to freely practice their religions. The move led to accusations that the Turkish leader was trying to erase Orthodox Christians' cultural heritage. Turkey is also under pressure to reopen a Greek Orthodox theological school that was shut down in 1971.
Masked pope, faith leaders pray for peace and pandemic's end
Pope Francis lights a candle for peace during an inter-religious ceremony for peace in the square outside Rome's City Hall, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020 (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)ROME – A masked Pope Francis welcomed religious leaders to a socially-distanced interfaith peace prayer Tuesday, appealing for a unified international effort to work for peace and an end to the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic is reminding us that we are blood brothers and sisters,” they said in a joint appeal issued at the end of the service. For weeks, Francis has shunned facemasks in his public and private audiences despite a surge in COVID-19 cases across Italy and even inside Vatican City. The service was organized by the Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community, which each year organizes an interfaith peace prayer in the spirit of the first one of its kind, celebrated by St. John Paul II in Assisi in 1986. In the past week 11 Swiss Guards and a resident of the hotel where Francis lives have tested positive.