The Times November 25, 2006
Novel 'warns' pontiff of the danger in his trip to
Turkey
Suna Erdem, Istanbul
A huge explosion rocks the Popes motorcade as it winds through the
streets of Istanbul. Amid the chaos, the Turkish security forces
realise that the assassins have slipped through the net to find
their target. But where is Benedict XVI?
We do not know because the author of Attack on the Pope: Who will
Kill the Pope in Istanbul? has not yet written the sequel. A real
papal visit Benedict XVIs first to a Muslim country, which
begins on Tuesday has put the spotlight on the little-known novel
with conspiracy theories to rival The Da Vinci Code.
The furore over the Popes speech in September, when he cited a
Byzantine emperor who linked Islam and violence, has put his trip
in a very different light and prompted renewed interest in Yücel
Kayas book.
After being billed as a chance for inter-religious dialogue, the
trip has become an ultra-high security affair conducted amid hopes
that it will not inflame further violence. This month a gunman
fired shots outside the Italian consulate in Istanbul. Further
protests are expected throughout the pontiffs visit in a country
where even the Popes anti-Muslim image is upstaged by his
opposition, when still a cardinal, to Turkish membership of the EU
on cultural and religious grounds.
His predecessor, John Paul II, survived an assassination attempt in
1981 by a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, whose still-mysterious
circumstances helped to inspire Kayas novel. I have been
following the Vatican for some years and think all the conditions
are in place for an attack on the Pope. I have written this book as
a warning, he said.
According to the novel, the Pope is heading to Istanbul to resolve
the 1,000-year-old schism between the Eastern and Western churches.
This will lead to a united effort to spread Christianity in the
Middle East. The resultant shift of power and money to Istanbul
would be disastrous for the big players in the Vatican the
secretive P2 Masonic lodge and Opus Dei so the Pope must be
killed.
Kaya remains adamant that any assassination would have nothing to
do with Turkey. The Turks are taking no chances. Even before
Benedict XVIs Regensburg address, three Catholic clerics were
attacked, one fatally, during the wave of protests against the
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Pope Fiction
Attack on the Pope Yücel Kaya, 2006.
The pontiff is to unite the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Big
players in the Vatican attempt his assassination to prevent the
shift of power and money to Istanbul
The Shoes of the Fisherman Morris West, 1963.
Kiril Lakota, a Russian cardinal, is made Pope and must lead in a
Western world he knows nothing about. Fifteen years later, a Pole
became Pope John Paul II
Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe, 1969.
An eccentric British priest is made pontiff, redesigns the
crucifix, redecorates the Vatican and canonises according to
whim
Pope Joan Donna Cross, 1997.
Fictionalised account of the legend of a woman pope during the
Middle Ages