TURKEY:For Peig Looney from Croagh, Co Limerick, the pope's Mass in Ephesus yesterday was the "icing on the cake", something that made "a special place more special".
She was one of the small congregation, estimated at about 500, who attended the Mass at Meryem Ana Evi, the only open-air Mass the pontiff will celebrate on this visit to Turkey.
Tradition holds that the church is built around what was the home that Mary, mother of Jesus, shared with St John in her latter years. It contains the ruins of the first church ever dedicated to the Virgin Mary. St John's tomb is also nearby.
St Luke has associations with the area and St Paul's Letter to the Ephesians was written to an early Christian community in Ephesus. It was the first reading at yesterday's Mass.
The Gospel was from St John, and recounts the words of Jesus to his mother and John as they stood at the foot of the cross: "Woman, behold your son!" to Mary, and, "Behold your mother!" to John.
Mass is held in the open air at Meryem Ana Evi 11 months of the year, according to Peig, who said that normally the congregation would be "three or four: our 'little flock', as the pope described it", she said.
Pope Benedict addressed his homily to "this nation, and, in a special way, to the 'little flock' of Christ living in its midst, in order to offer a word of encouragement and to manifest the affection of the whole church".
Peig said that despite the media presence yesterday, what was special about the place was "very tangible . . . that silence, that stillness was palpable". She thought the pontiff seemed very much at home.
"It's a very humble place, and he's a very humble man with no airs or graces. He greeted everyone and seemed to have lots of time."
Security was tight but she was very moved to see so many local people lining the route to welcome Benedict and his entourage. She felt it showed "respect".
In his homily the pope said he wanted to convey "my personal love and spiritual closeness, together with that of the universal church, to the Christian community here in Turkey, a small minority which faces many challenges and difficulties daily".
Referring to the conflict in the Middle East, he exhorted "from this edge of the Anatolian peninsula, a natural bridge between continents, let us implore peace and reconciliation, above all for those in the land called 'Holy' and considered as such by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike."
He spoke of Pope John XXXIII's love of the Turks, as he had in an address in Ankara on Monday night to Dr Ali Bardakoglu, president of religious affairs in Turkey.
Pope John was papal nuncio to Turkey from January 1935 to December 1944 and wrote later: "I love the Turks. I appreciate the natural qualities of these people who have their own place reserved in the march of civilization." Pope Benedict used this quotation again in his homily yesterday.
Peig Rooney has been coming to Ephesus since 1989, when that "good Northern Prod" Wesley Burrowes recommended she go there. She was working at the time as a production assistant on Glenroe, the TV series he wrote, and was looking for a cheap holiday somewhere. She arrived at Ismir and went to Ephesus, 45 minutes away, as advised, and was soon "adopted by the local characters". The place is "very, very special to everyone here. To the Turks as much".
Turks have a special devotion to Mary. In Istanbul yesterday Irish Dominican priest Fr Paul Lawlor spoke of how Muslims there regularly attended Catholic churches in the city to burn candles in front of statues of Mary and pray.
Peig thought Meryem Ana Evi looked like the Galarus oratory on the Dingle peninsula that first time she saw it, such is its simplicity. On her second trip there she brought a bible she had bought in Dublin and began to read it for the first time.
She believed visiting there had awakened her spirituality. It was something which happened people who visited the area, she said, "a special history oozes out of here".
The accreditation to attend yesterday's Mass was organised for many locals by Irishman Liam O'Sullivan, who believes he was cured of leukaemia at Meryem Ana Evil, she said.
She said he was "a very, very active and fit member of the community" who had also organised coaches to bring along Christians yesterday from communities at Ismir, Mersin, Iskenderun, and Antakia.
