Things are heating up in Turkey in advance of Pope Benedict's visit

From CNA:

According to Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of the Diocese of Anatolia, Turkey, the stabbing of a Catholic priest has exposed a media-led campaign to undermine the success of the Pope’s trip to the country.

Turkey’s beleaguered Christian population of barely 100,000 were shocked after the elderly French Father Pierre Brunissen was knifed - allegedly by a schizophrenic - in the northern port city of Samsun last week. It was the sixth attack on a Churchman in as many months.

Reporting on media opposition to the planned meeting between the Pope and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, Bishop Padovese stated: “Many, many people think it is not acceptable for the Pope to visit the Patriarch. They have a very negative attitude.” He referred to newspaper reports calling on the Holy Father not to pray while visiting the Hagia Sophia, one of Christendom’s greatest achievements - a vast cathedral which was turned into a mosque before becoming a museum. “The newspaper reports were saying that the Pope should remember Hagia Sophia is now a museum, not a place of worship. They say they will be very critical of him if he starts praying there.”

Stressing how the media was inciting religious hatred among Turkey’s Muslim population, he said, “If you read the newspapers and listen to the TV, what you see about Christians is very negative. The authorities are trying to search for dialogue, but if the opinions of the media are so negative, how is it possible to talk about dialogue?” [source]

This story comes in the midst of Cardinal Kasper saying that Turkey is not yet ready to be admitted to the EU and disclosing that "officials are studying the situation in Turkey carefully, in light of plans for Pope Benedict XVI to travel there in November."

Further, Kasper said, "Officials are considering how the Pope's travel plans should be changed to allow for heightened security concerns and to avoid unnecessary confrontations."

And as recently as early this month, a third priest was stabbed in Turkey.