Bishop says Turkey's poll results should be good for Catholics

Published: 2007-07-24

ROME (CNS) -- An overwhelming victory for Turkey's ruling Islamic-oriented party should be a "positive thing" for the nation's Catholics, said Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic administrator of Anatolia, Turkey. "The relationships the prime minister has built up with Europe over the past years are such that it is difficult to imagine (there would be any) fundamentalist involvement" in shaping future Turkish policies, Bishop Padovese told the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero July 24. Bishop Padovese said he thought "Catholics might also demand" some of the reforms many moderate Muslims are asking for, such as greater freedom of expression. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party secured more than 46 percent of the votes at the end of general elections July 22. The win gave the center-right, conservative party an absolute majority in the new parliament, with 341 of the 550 legislative seats. "Erdogan will continue his platform of reforms," Bishop Padovese said.

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