The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Tuesday that July 24 “is a Day of Mourning” for Hagia Sophia. The former church and museum in Istanbul will that day be inaugurated as a mosque.
In a July 21 tweet, the USCCB said that it joins the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America “in offering our prayers for the restoration of Hagia Sophia as a place of prayer and reflection for all peoples.”
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a decree July 10 converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The decree followed closely on a ruling by the Council of State, Turkey’s highest administrative court, which declared unlawful an 80-year old government decree which converted the building from a mosque into a museum.
Hagia Sophia was built in 537 under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I as the cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the basilica was converted into a mosque. Under the Ottomans, architects added minarets and buttresses to preserve the building, but the mosaics showing Christian imagery were whitewashed and covered.
In 1934, under a secularist Turkish government, the mosque was turned into a museum. Some mosaics were uncovered, including depictions of Christ, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Justinian I, and Zoe Porhyrogenita. It was declared a World Heritage Site under UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in 1985.
As a mosque, the mosaics in Hagia Sophia will have to be covered during prayers, as will as the seraph figures located in the dome.
The members of the eparchial synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America wrote July 19 that considering the inauguration of Hagia Sophia as a mosque, which they called a “program of cultural and spiritual misappropriation and a violation of all standards of religious harmony and mutual respect, we call upon all the beloved faithful of our Holy Archdiocese to observe this day as a day of mourning and of manifest grief. We urge you to invite your fellow Orthodox Christians and indeed all Christians and people of goodwill to share in the following observances.”
The observances are “that every Church toll its bells in lamentation on this day. We call for every flag of every kind that is raised on the Church property be lowered to half-mast on this day. And we enjoin every Church in our Holy Archdiocese to chant the Akathist Hymn in the evening of this day, just as we chant it on the Fifth Friday of the Great and Holy Fast….”
Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Joseph Bambera of Scranton, the US bishops’ president and ecumenical chair, respectively, said July 14 that “we join Pope Francis and our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters in expressing deep sadness over the decree by Turkey’s president to open Hagia Sophia as a mosque…”
The above comes from a July 21 story on Catholic News Agency.
A good show of solidarity with our Eastern Brethren…..
If Christendom wants Hagia Sophia back, then it should wage another Crusade to take back the land. Turkey owns it, the Muslims control it, so they get to decide what to do with it. End of story. Stop griping about Hagia Sophia. And Archbishop Gomez “expresses deep sadness”??? Cry me a river. Gomez sold the former convent of the Immaculate Heart sisters to Katy Perry against their wishes. Guess what? He had the legal right to do that. So don’t give me any of this about trying to tell the Turks what do with buildings and on land that they own. It’s theirs. They get to decide. It’s their sole right. Nobody else has any say. If Muslims take over the Vatican, they’ll get to turn the whole place into mosque central if they want.
Kevin, Hagia Sophia was built by Christians and taken by Muslims. What “Christendom” are you talking about? It was a beautiful significant church of saints and martyrs before the Great Schism (between West and East). What was wrong with leaving it a museum for humanity, where peoples of all faiths and no faith could visit and see beautiful iconography of Our Lord and Our Lady? It seems you’re okay with Muslims forcibly taking and desecrating the Hagia Sophia. Are you really okay if they do the same with the churches of Rome? Are you a member of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the Creed?
If so, how do you not see this as a deep wound in the Body of Christ? That Archbishop Gomez and other Catholic bishops recognize that is a good thing.
This has nothing to do with Katy Perry,
OK Kevin…interesting to have an admirer of Islamic totalitarian power on this web site…
And if the Muslims take over the Vatican, it will also be their right
to kill everybody in Rome first, because that’s just the way it is…
It’s just realistic, Christians don’t get it – it is the right and might of Islam!
(says Kevin) Forget all this Freedom of Religion Christian stuff
It’s only Islam and jihad power, because that’s the way it is!
And a question – the US is our country, so that gives us the right to
close all mosques, and end Islam here, correct Kevin?
(Kevin) OH, that’s different! Islam must have the right to worship!
And that’s the way it is here in the US, Thanks, Kevin.
So it was a Christian church, a mosque and then a museum. Even though it is a world historical site, the current government made it a mosque again. What next, expecially if the government changes?
I have the “Eastern Prayer Book” by Theophilus Floyd. Does anyone know if the prayers to be used are in this book and what pages in this book will be used?
Most Orthodox and Eastern Catholics (and many Roman Catholics) will be praying the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos/Mother of God, I’m not familiar with that particular book, but if it’s an Eastern Christian prayer book, it likely has it. Below, I’ve linked it being prayed in our parish in Los Angeles. (Unfortunately, the video is post-COVID, so Fr. Michael is chanting it by himself, otherwise he’d be accompanied by a cantor and congregation.). I hope this helps.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=153633275899830&ref=watch_permalink
Thank you for the link Deacon Anderson.
The prayer is in my book in English under “Akathist to Our Most Holy Lady, Mother of God” on page 161-174. It is quite beautiful.
If one prays alone in the book “Eastern Prayer Book, Prayers for Various Occasions Including the Divine Liturgy” by Theophilus Floyd, One starts on pgs. 115 than goes to the Akathist, pg. 161 when it is written to do so.
Fr. Z recommends that the Latin Church says the Rosary and Leo XIII’s Act of Consecration of the human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Today is Friday, too, a day of penance, no meat preferred or somethings else given up.
Continued: Oh, and the Rosary, too, whatever one chooses to do.
What will it take for Catholic leaders to understand Islam and its teaching that it considers itself as the only true religion and must subject all others to it?
To Rev P. The comment about Islam sounds like what I learned in twelve years of Catholic education lo these many years ago. Catholicism was the only ‘true religion’ What about the Crusades?
Well thanks, Mike!
Why yes, Catholicism is the one true religion, taught to us by Jesus.
Good of you to point that out.
As for the Crusades, you do realize they happened after Europe was invaded by Muslims…
Perhaps you might think of going back to Church soon. We need you back.
Mike M the typical response of a liberal “what about the crusades.” They were glorious and justified; they were launched 300 years after Muslim armies invaded Christian Europe….crickets from the liberals.
Dear Anon
Can’t go to church now they’re shut due to covid. Went every Sunday previously.
Great Mike!, good to see you are attending Church! Now, like so many other Catholics, Including some
(ahem) very highly placed prelates, how about also defending your Church from the vicious, unacceptable,
and terrorist attacks of Muslims? We need you there up at the front, not enough of us.
And Catholics are now openly despised and mocked by the Media. In contrast, the SF Chronicle ran a
glowing article on how wonderful it was for Hagia Sophia to become a mosque, and forget all that
Christian stuff about who built it. It’s Islamic now, and don’t you forget it! Muslims are
admired and praised by the Media…while the ongoing denigration of Catholics continues without pause.
And, dozens of Churches in France have been set on fire, and thousands vandalized, by Muslims.
It won’t be long before our Churches here will be facing the same problems…
Of identified perpetrators of anti-Christian attacks, more than 60 percent are minors. Many perpetrators “appear to be disaffected young people, or the psychologically disturbed or homeless, rather than members of organized groups advancing a political agenda,” Bernstein said.
About 60 per cent of vandalism incidents involved graffiti like satanic inscriptions, anarchist symbols, swastikas, or nationalist or neo-Nazi slogans. In Bernstein’s view, this “would seem to represent a kind of ugly desperate social fringe than a general growth of anti-Christian hatred.”
For Bernstein, the evidence shows attacks by Muslims “account for a small fraction of anti-Christian crimes.”
This is from last year at https://grandinmedia.ca/french-worry-about-dramatic-rise-in-attacks-against-churches/
Incredible. Another Muslim apologist. So what was 911? And the coordinated attacks on the Pentagon and Washington? How about that armed Muslim attack on that Christmas Party in So Cal, or the guy who rode his car down sidewalks in NYC? And when one looks at France, it is the story of one attack on Churches after another ! And there is no freedom of religion under Islamic Rule…Nigeria, for example, where Christians are massacred on a daily basis. So, what are you saying!, What !! “Muslims account for a small fractions of anti-Christian crimes”
Incredible. If you are a Christian living in a Muslim country, your life is always in danger, while Muslims and apologists like this man try to cover over what can only be taken as murderous continuing assaults on Christians.
I don’t think Catholic News Agency is a Muslim apologist.
Silly silly Mike, The Roman Catholic Church is the One and Only Faith founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ himself! Deo Gratias