(OSV News): Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to the small Catholic community in Turkey after gunmen attacked a church during Sunday morning Mass on January 28, leaving at least one worshipper dead.
“I would like to express my closeness to the community of the church of Santa Maria in Istanbul, which suffered an armed attack during Mass that caused one death and left several injured,” the pope said in his remarks during the Sunday Angelus.
The shooting occurred just before noon at the Santa Maria church in the Sariyer district of Istanbul, and was reportedly carried out by two masked men according to eyewitnesses. Interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, posted a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying, “We strongly condemn this vile attack.”
The area where the attack happened is popular with Christians in the Muslim majority country of nearly 85 million people, being home to the Santa Maria Catholic church—known as the Italian church—a Greek Orthodox church and an Armenian Apostolic church all dating from the 19th century.
Istanbul is also home to the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians.
The Justice minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said that “efforts continue to identify and capture the suspects who carried out the attack,” adding, “The investigation is being carried out in a multifaceted and meticulous manner.”
Turkey’s ruling AKP party spokesperson, Omer Celik, posted on X that the attackers took aim at a person during the Mass.
“Our security forces are conducting a large-scale investigation into the matter,” he wrote.
“Those who threaten the peace and security of our citizens will never achieve their goals,” he insisted.
Authorities have not yet identified a motive for the attack. However, Turkish security services have been engaged in operations against suspected Islamists in recent months.
In December, security forces detained 32 suspects over alleged links with the so-called Islamic State group which planned attacks on churches and synagogues, as well as the Iraqi embassy.
The group carried out a string of attacks on Turkish soil, including against a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017 that left 39 people dead.
