Apparently Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, is “very distressed” by the decision to revert the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia into a mosque; it has been a museum since 1934. He made his views known in the latest edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
Quite why he and a whole host of other voices of faith and no faith from various quarters around the world are distressed is beyond me. I imagine the Hagia Sophia, originally built as a cathedral serving the Christian Byzantine Empire, will continue to be a major tourist draw for visitors heading to Istanbul …read more
Source:: Middle East Monitor
