 [Al Ahram] Pope Francis
...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess...
said on Sunday that he is ``deeply pained'' over the decision by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
to change the status of Hagia Sophia _ which was originally built in Istanbul as a Christian cathedral - from a museum to a mosque.
In a very brief, improvised remark, Francis, speaking from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square, noted that the Catholic Church marked Sunday as International Day of the Sea. ``And the sea brings me a little far away with my thought: to Istanbul,'' the pontiff said. ``I am thinking of St. Sophia and I am deeply pained.''Francis said no more but was clearly referring to the move by Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
 ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
to formally convert the monumental building back into a mosque. The colossal Santa Sophia cathedral was turned into a mosque after the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453. The Ottoman Turkish secular government in 1934 decided to make it a museum.
The pope, who heads the Roman Catholic church, is adding his voice to strong objections a day earlier by the head of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches. That organization described its ``grief and dismay'' in noting that Hagia Sophia has been ``a place of openness, encounter and inspiration for people from all nations.'' The council's membership comprises Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches.
Erdogan declared the monument open for Moslem worship after a high court annulled the 1934 government decision.
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