THE INCARNATE WISDOM UPDATED

There are reports that the Great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is going to be turned into a mosque.

This has hit me rather like a sudden blow in the belly.

PF has great experience of the rituals of kissing Orthodox hierarchs and asking to be blessed by them. This is the time for him to show solidarity by speaking out. He did, in the early days of his pontificate, bravely speak out about the Turkish genocide of the Armenians. He is, or once was, capable of it.

In our own Western lands, few things would do more to improve cultural relations than if the leaders of our own Islamic communities were to say, very loudly, NOT IN MY NAME.

Another eloquent gesture would be for those sponsoring an "Abrahamic House" in the Middle East to build the Christian component in that complex as a replica of Hagia Sophia. 

Yes; PF did protest!! Good for him.

Next question: the Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayyeb, with whom PF signed that syncretistic document last year: has he protested against the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque? I can't find any such protest in the Media ... has anybody else seem a relevant news item?  Or, indeed, has anybody seen any reports of Islamic leaders anywhere rising in solidarity with their Christian 'partners in dialogue'?

Why so silent, brothers? Our ears are twitching with expectation.