"Let us sing joyfully, even when we're tested by difficulties and dangers as we have learned from the fine witness given by the Rev. Andrea Santoro, whom I am pleased to recall in this celebration," Benedict said at an outdoor Mass.

Benedict on Wednesay cited one of his predecessors, Pope John XXIII, who served as a papal diplomat in Turkey in the 1940s. He quoted him as saying, "I love the Turks. I appreciate the natural qualities of these people, who have their own place reserved in the march of civilization."

"With great love, I greet all of you here present," he told 250 worshippers who gathered next to the ruins of a house where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years.

"I have 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," the pope said.

St. John the Apostle is believed to have brought the Virgin Mary to the house to care for her after Jesus' death. Another belief maintains that the Virgin Mary died in Jerusalem.

The ruins of the house, whose earliest foundations date to the first century, have become a popular pilgrimage site since the 1950s. A chapel was built over the ruins, and some believe in the healing powers of both the chapel and waters flowing from a nearby spring. The site is nestled on a wooded mountain between the ancient city of Ephesus and the town of Selcuk, near the Aegean coast.

Of Turkey's 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic, and 3,500 are Protestant, mostly converts from Islam. Another 2,000 are Greek Orthodox and 23,000 are Jewish. The European Union has called on Turkey to expand religious freedoms.  

       

A Prayer of Dedication by Fr. Andrea Santoro

Mary, Woman of Jerusalem
Where you offered yourself with Jesus at the foot of the Cross
Mary, Woman of the Last Supper
Where you gathered the breath of the Holy Spirit,
Mary, Woman of Ephesus,
Where you came with John, ‘Your Son’
Sent in mission by the Spirit: Pray for us.
Mary, Mother of the sheep outside the fold,
Mother of those who do not know your son,
Mother of those who know not what they do: Pray for us.
Mary, Mother of lifeless souls,
Mother of lightless minds,
Mother of hopeless hearts,
Mother of sons, who killed your son,
Mother of sinners, Mother of the thief who did not repent,
Mother of the son who did not come back: Pray for us.
Mary, Mother of those who did not follow Him,
Mother of those who repudiated Him,
Mother of those who went back,
Mother of those who were not called: Pray for us.
Mary, Mother of those who like John
Seek the lost children of God,
Mother of those who those who descend in hell
To announce life to the dead: Pray for us.
Mary, Mother, come and live with me:
Come to the house where I am asked to live,
Come to the land where I am asked to go,
Come among the men I am asked to love,
Come to the divisions that I am asked to heal,
Come into the hearts that I am asked to visit.
Come to my home and be my mother,
Come Mary; give me your heart as mother.
“Meryem anà” “Mary, Mother” of all peoples: Pray for us.