Ask not for whom the bell tolls...and we all know the rest.  In point-of-fact, bells rarely toll at Christian Monasteries and Churches in the now Islamicized lands of the once great Christian East, as Church bells have long-since been made "verboten" by the Muslim conquerers, but I will get to that later.  (A strategy we should initiate in America and Europe with respect to the Muslim call to prayer, on the basis that a screeching call over loudspeakers 5 times a day is more inescapably disturbing and offensive to the sensibilities of non-Muslims than the mere (and willfully eclipsable) sight of the Mt. Soledad Cross is to anti-Christians.)

     On Tuesday, I understand, the Pope will travel to Turkey for four days.  The Turkish security forces are in "high-alert," and there is some very rough water to be treaded gingerly by all sides.  People are marching in the streets with ridiculous signs about an Islamic Jesus, and the threats against the Pope's life are all too real.   (Wasn't it a Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II?) 
     Now, I understand the delicacy of these operations, and I can appreciate the desire of the Pope to deflect to the best of his ability the intolerant, irrational, and murderous anger of many Muslims.  At least one Nun, a handful of priests, and even young Christian children in Iraq have been deliberately slaughtered (read as sacrificed) by Muslims in direct response to the Pope's completely logical and perfectly inoffensive exercising of his own individual right (and obligation) to freely express himself with respect to religious matters as they touch on the subject of "life-and-death."  He does not need Muslim permission, or anybody else's permission in order to do so.  (To those still irked and offended...all I can say is, "get lost.") 

     In so doing, he attempted to invoke a genuine invitation toward Muslim scholars and thinking peoples everywhere to openly debate and enter into dialogue with respect to the despicable practice of the slaughtering of innocents and "infidels" in the name of God (which is a daily occurrence in the Islamic world)...and the role that reason, or LOGOS (a term used by St. John for Jesus Christ the "Word," expressing the Son's relationship to the Father) plays in the spiritual lives of mankind. 
     Now, Islamic theology declares that Allah is beyond knowing, and he is not constrained by anything, even "reason,"  in any way, whatsoever.  Allah could, the Islamic scholars say...make us all idolaters if he wanted to do so.  (The only thing Allah can apparently not do, is incarnate himself  as a human being, or beget a divine son in human flesh with whom he shares his essential divinity...?*?) 
     Christians, on the other hand, and the Hebrew/Greek ancestral heritage of Christianity, in general...disagree categorically and vehemently.  God, and his creation is indeed, absolutely and characteristically  "logikos."   Whatever can be said about both God and His creation, it would be incorrect to suggest that anything about either can be construed as not "reasonable" in the genuine sense that Logos conveys in the original Greek Bible.   No matter how transcendent or ultimately unknowable God actually is, He is certainly not  to be characterized as "nothing," or "nothing-at-all," or "nothing-even-remotely-knowable."  This would be a "break" from everything that Western History, the Judaic Scriptures, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ  has bequeathed to us, and it would detract from the intimacy and the  immediacy of a relationship with the "Living-God," substituting in it's place a "dread, dead, and fearful" gospel of soul-devouring  demons and zombie-like life.

     Rather, everywhere we seem to "see,"  in every created realm, either Cosmic or Micro, animate or inanimate,as well as the miraculous structures for transcendant experience "inborn" within the healthy human heart and soul, something of a "signature" of the One from whom they first arose.  In everything, from the birth and death of the stars and galaxies, to the miracle of the most simple and mundane genetically encoded cellular machinery, and perhaps especially to the awakening of the soul of an innocent child sweetly sparkling to "life" from an beneficent encounter with Divine Grace...we find something knowable, some "trace" of "Him".   Like footprints in the sand, we know that we did not make them, nor did they make themselves, but are, in-fact, evidence of the One walking-ahead...from which we can either induce or infer his size, his shape, his speed, his style of gait, his weight, his burden, his ailments, his vigor, his direction, his history, and perhaps even his destination.
     As St. Gregory Palamas described it well, "God is both beyond knowing, and beyond unknowing."  When examined...this simple phrase will usher-in a sensibility and theological subtlety that is not penetrated through unrefined Islamic theological gropings.  
     In brief, it is Islam that constrains the Energies and actions and Essence of God, because they have short-circuited such with simplistic dogma of an a/meta/irrational deity, which is certainly counter-intuitive to the Christian revelation (as opposed to dogma) of "God-the-Logos, God the Son."   Thus, without divine energies operating in the rational life of a free-man, the theological and practical need arises for a very uniquely special Book.   One accompanied with many scholarly interpretations of what it all means, since God is unknowable any other way.  (Of course, Islam is not free to debate openly questions of a spiritual nature with non-muslims without fear of accusations of apostasy and reprisals of death. This prohibition against open discussion with the "infidel" is a classic sign of group cultishness, and Muslims who do so, and Muslims as a whole, are perennially at the mercy of the most radical amongst themselves. (No trial necessary, human justice is superfluous.) Thus, even in the West,  those who question Koranic interpretations may well have to live in perpetual secrecy.

     In addition to the Italian Roman Catholic Nun in (Somalia?) who was shot in the back while going to her work, (her labor of selfless Christian love for decades,) in a hospital espressly dedicated to the alleviation of suffering of indigent Muslims...there was also an Assyrian Christian priest, one of the few remaining remnants of a once richly liturgical and near-universal Mesopotamian Christianity who was abducted and beheaded in Iraq in response to the Pope's perceived "insult." Other Christians suffered from Islamic persecution as well,  not all of whom were even Roman Catholic.  Then, a few weeks later a young 14 year-old boy was accosted at his workplace in Northern Iraq by Islamic dogs masquerading as what the Western Press refers to as Iraqi "freedom-fighters."  When they demanded to see the boy's identification, it was revealed that the young boy was indeed, a Christian.  They told him, "You are a Christian sinner!"  and he replied, "I am a Christian, but I am not a sinner"..."You are a Christian sinner," they insisted.  His attackers then grabbed the young fourteen year-old boy by each of his limbs, and proceeded to saw off his head amid shriekings of unimaginable terror, while maniacally shouting the ever-popular and never-heard-enough-and-always-placatingly-sacrificial-appeal to their" Belial," or at least to "something other than the One True God"..."Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar!"  
     Such a handy phrase.  Such empowerment.  Such devolved intellection.  A pitiful rationale devoid of all logos (reason) and everything loving and consistent with the nature of the True God.  Thus, the Pope has every human right (because we believe in individual rights, that dispense from the divine...as opposed to Islam, who believe in the divine suppression of such, n'est-ce pas?,) and Christian duty to raise such issues, as it cuts-to-the-heart of Christian belief, and the message of Jesus Christ Himself.  In fact, such barbaric examples of faux-sacred depravity and ritual sacrificial violence are the precise essence of but one aspect of what Christ's incarnational message is intended to, and will, dethrone once-and-for-all.  And such sacrificial violence against the infidel is exactly as prescribed by Mohammed.  

     {These (worse than) beasts, together with the others like them in Indonesia who torture, rape, and behead prepubescent tenderly youthful and beautiful young Catholic Christian girls on their way to school in the mornings, are the greatest scum that exist on the planet Earth, today.   (If you have any questions about my last statement, you need to seek professional help, quickly.)  If you know of any worse group of (ostensibly religious or not) people, please tell me who they are...for I cannot conceive of any in our present age.  This is the enemy, who are following the marching orders of the Koran which explicitly and scripturally allows, permits, and sanctions these beheadings and murders of innocents "as if they are doing service to God," (NT, JC,)   and it is high-time to "flush-"em out" and render an accounting.}

     But, let us return to the country of Turkey, and the upcoming visit of the Pope.  On everyone's mind, is the need to make overtures to the more moderate Islamic world through a visit that will emphasize the need for more (useless in my opinion) dialogue, in order to smooth-over any misunderstandings from the 9/12/06 talk at Regensberg.  And of course, it is fitting that the Pope should visit his poor little flock that worships in near-secrecy in this supposedly secular Muslim land that would wish to join the European Union...where, in stark Christian-based contrast, Mosques are built openly throughout the Continent, often financed by well-wishing Christian and Roman Catholic faithful to meet the spiritual needs of their new and less-fortunate little "brothers." 
     There is however, another factor that should not be overlooked...and that is the upcoming meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Christian Faith, Bartholomew.  As Cardinal, Pope Benedict spent no small amount of time and energy trying to make overtures to the Orthodox leadership in Constantinople and Moscow in order to heal the wounds of the schisms of the Churches.  The history is rather long and complex, but intriguing nevertheless...but I will not go into it here.  The point that is being made is that there does seem to be an awareness that some kind of formal Christian Unity is more pressing now than it has been in the recent past.  I would think that this is the Pope's goal, and I believe that he is much more "right-on" and "on-top" of things than we generally know, or that the media could ever know, lamentably undereducated and woefully indoctrinated as they are. 
     On the other hand, the Islamists must sense a perilous presence with the Pope on former Christian soil.  Their claim to legitimacy is precarious and subject to being trumped.  And the specter of a Western (Christian) awakening ("we have had enough!") is all-too-real, and they can sense it.  (At some point, the West will call the Muslim "bluff," it is only a matter of time..but, then again, timing is everything.)  I think that one simple fact is undeniable, and it shall eventually be generally realized...that Constantinople and so much more of the Middle East and North Africa and the Balkans will not endure in the absence of a formidably troublesome and ghostly Judeo-Christian memory, rendering their current national and religious legitimacies as forever haunted and ultimately doomed.  

     Islamic history is the Mother-of-all Holocausts, it will not go unquestioned or unresponded to forever.  A "reckoning" is bound to occur, and the present instance of the Pope's visit to Holy Constantinople and Agia Sophia shall have implications and effects both subtle and profoundly sublime.  With such a visit by such a man, history's collective memory rouses and stirs itself sensible.  Once awakened, it would not be surprising if it were to find itself unquenchingly famished from such a long hibernation in the sleep-land of the sacralization of the secular, which presumes to divinize every "urge."
    
     On an entirely practical level, the problem the Pope is facing is a monumental one that will require a Divine spark from the Holy Spirit in order to be consummated, for sure.  The obstacles are at least two-fold. 

     Firstly, the Roman Church has lost a great deal of its former clout throughout the world since the Second Vatican Council.  In Europe, America, and the West in general, it is a mere shadow of its former self.  This is complicated by long-standing cultural and historical obstacles that have involved reciprocal genocide and mutual distrust, associated with arcanely detailed theological disputes of profound significance to the understanding of the Christian Faith.  These factors alone would seem to not bode well for any high-level rapprochement, but to make matters worse...even the Orthodox themselves are splintered and separated from one-another along jurisdictional lines.  Thus, the EP Bartholomew is essentially powerless to effectively rally the troops without substantial on-the-ground support.  (Besides that, he is not wealthy.  The Turkish government has confiscated "tons" of Bartholomew's church property including schools, hospitals, seminaries, churches, and even cemeteries. 
     There has been a gradual decline in the native Greek-Byzantines in Turkey for 1000 years now.  At present, there are 3,000 Orthodox Christians in Istanbul, which is but 2% of their number in the 1960's.  This once splendidly cultured Bastion of the Christian world, the greatest city on the earth in its time, which bequeathed to us the Great Councils of the Early Church and Ancient Christian Centers in places such as Antioch, Nicea, Ephesus, Constantinople and so many more, now hosts but a few slenderly scattered Christians.  The slaughter of some 3 million Greek Christians (native to Asia Minor since Alexandrian and Roman/Byzantine times) in the early 20th century by the Turks is very well-documented...not to mention the Armenian Christian genocide of almost the same magnitude at approximately the same time.   It is instructive to note that this was accomplished largely after the secularization of Turkey by Attaturk.  (For those who are interested, one can search for the slaughter of the Greek Orthodox Christians at Smyrna, an event still within the agonizingly living memory of some of my old and recently deceased Greek-American friends.)

    Secondly,  there will be great pressure coming from the very influential and powerful Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow for the Greeks to distance themselves from the West.  Of this, I am almost certain.  This is partly a legacy of Communism, and partly the legacy of an extremely strong sense of Orthodox Christianity felt on the part of the enigmatic Slavic peoples as being the last true and faithful repository of the genuine Christian faith.  This sentiment is not to be off-handedly begrudged.  The failure to take the Russian (and other Slavic) peoples seriously has been, and is, an unmitigated disaster on the part of the West.  For now, the Russian government is knee-jerk opposed to most American and Western interests.  The convoluted interplay of the Russian Church and the history of the Russian peoples as it plays-out in Russian government and society today is no simple study...but the understanding of its dynamics may mean the difference between ultimate success or failure.  In fact, when Cardinal Ratzinger approached the Russian Orthodox Church to discuss what Unification with the West might look-like, he was told to essentially "take-a-hike."  These are a proud people with a rich and vital Church that they are straining to reclaim, and which has suffered tremendously under Communism.  They won't be caving-in now to any watered-down Christian modernisms from (in their perspective) an apostate and heretical Pope.  But, the Russian Orthodox have their own problems, which are largely based in a very perplexingly strange kind of Slavic denial about their own ecclesiastical past, for one...and their indebtedness to the West and the Roman Catholic presence and influence from Catherine-the- Greats time, for yet another.  
     So, it won't be easy...but it is the hard work that has to be done.  To my way of thinking, the Roman and Reformed West has more to learn these days, traditionally, theologically, liturgically, and pietistically speaking from the Orthodox East rather than vice-versa.  In fact, the Eastern Orthodox Christian legacy holds the key to a Western reinvigoration of it's own Christian heritage, in my humble opinion.  (But, this is a story for another time.)
     The one thing the Roman Church does indeed have, (or did indeed have) however, is a highly centralized organizational expression of it's Church.  With a single head, the Pope, the Vicar of Christ on Earth, not only represented visibly the leadership of Christ and the Magisterium of the (One-Undivided) Church, but once actually wielded that power and authority to make it's authority real throughout the world, in an efficient, final, and practical way.  There is no single organizational equivalent within worldwide Orthodoxy.  None.  And no single Orthodox equivalent of the  'Pope."  There are many Patriarchs and Bishops, some of which are not even in Communion with the others.  (It is something of a "sadly ironic joke" among the Orthodox, that their leaders will spend more time and energy discussing Ecumenics with Catholics and Protestants than they do with each other.)  
     And this is what the East must learn from the West...that the Collegial System of equal Bishops must not be allowed to run-amuck within insular ethnic and nationalistic Orthodox jurisdictions, thus sabotaging the greater pragmatic and indispensable theological goal of Worldwide Christian Unity.  Unity is not a sentimental fantasy, it is the Prayer and desire of Christ Himself on the night that he was taken-up.  (Protestants worldwide must acknowledge the same, and be prepared for some substantial internal shake-ups of their own in order to best facilitate this goal.)  Thus, it is not a theologically dispensable commodity, but rather...it is an absolute imperative.  (I think that I would like to write more on this topic at a later date.)     
     Also...the Christian world is, in spite of their "alienation" from one another...not at "war" with one-another on the grounds of any theological disputation, and none is even remotely thinkable.  The Sunni/Shite divide has no practical counterpart in contemporary Christendom.  You can be sure, that when the Muslims succeed in subduing and slaughtering us, they will return rapidly to continue their customary prediliction of slaughtering one-another, asap.  Absolutely.  That is the ultimate and inevitable legacy of a (false) theology without any recourse to Logos.

     Mark my words, there is no doubt about it. 

     God Speed, Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew. 

     The world really does depend on you...no pressure, though.

     And oh yes, one small part of being a Christian "dhimmi" in Islamically conquered lands involved the total annihilation/prohibition of all Church Bells.  So, the Monastics called their people to pray with the beating of a log with sticks in a rhythm like this.   XxxxXxxxXxXxXxxx, XxxxXxxxXxXxXxxx.  The interesting point to take from all of this, is that if you visit Greek and other Orthodox Monasteries in the U.S.A today, you will not always hear Church Bells at the 3:45am call to prayer, what you will hear though, is this...XxxxXxxxXxXxXxxx. 

     Talk about the Stockholm Syndrome!  God help us all.  

     Don't you see, that this is YOU and I and our progeny 500 hundred years from now?  Forget your history, and there won't be any.  The history of our future according to Islam, is already written entirely in Arabic. 

     God Bless.