Msgr. Martin Kmetec, a Slovenian, has been a conventual minor friar since 1977. He has been Archbishop of Izmir since December 8, 2020, and as such, leader of the Catholic Church in Turkey. He granted an interview to Fr. Rinaldo Paganelli, published on May 29, 2023. In it, he delivers an updated assessment of the Catholic Church and its survival under the Islamist regime, as well as an interesting and astonishing analysis of the Islam in the country.
First of all, at the statistical level, Msgr. Kmetec tells us that there are approximately 60,000 Catholics in Turkey, a minority that represents only 0.07% of a population that is overwhelmingly Muslim.
In the country, the Latin Rite Catholic Church includes the Archdiocese of Izmir, the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia, and the Apostolic Vicariate of Istanbul. As is the case when one is a minority and survival in the land of Islam is an everyday challenge, there is a closeness and collaboration with the autocephalous Armenian, Chaldean, Greek, and Syrian Christians, who have each their own ritual.
The Archbishop of Izmir explains that the situation has changed significantly in recent years: after decades of gloom, marked by “a period of weariness” due to the mass exodus of Christians, but also the “crisis of vocations,” a new era seems to be emerging for the Church in Turkey.
This is due to a new phenomenon: the growing number of Turks, whether coming from Islam or not, wishing to join the Catholic Church. Bishop Kmetec is more specific: “A recent survey carried out within our various parishes indicates that there are currently 226 catechumens who are receiving Christian teaching. In Istanbul alone, there are 110, 62 in Anatolia, and 54 in Izmir; they are between 19 and 63 years old.”
Lucid, and contrary to a modernity which has disappointed many churchmen since the bankruptcy of the conciliar aggiornamento, the Slovenian prelate insists on the fact that a “Catholic Church which is not missionary cannot survive.”
He adds: “I repeat it to Christians: if everyone, on returning home, decides to invite a person [non-Catholic, ed.] to Sunday Mass, and repeats it two or three times a month, if only two or three times a year, that would already be a missionary attitude.” They are far from the mirage of false ecumenism.
The Archbishop of Izmir is not really the man of Living Stones, of the Dutch Catechism, or of the Alpha Course: “Without a real doctrinal formation, life becomes disordered, because we have not understood that continuous formation is essential. This is valid for catechumens and also to encourage the celibacy of priests.” For the prelate, “there is no need to establish grand theories, next year, for example, I will set up a full week of formation,” he said.
And when we talk to him about the risk of dilution within an Islamic society when we represent 0.07% of the population, Msgr. Kmetec sweeps the remark aside: “The real question is not to know whether or not the Church will be able to retain its current membership. The real question is whether it can attract new members.”
It is an attitude full of hope, but also lucidity about the state of Islam in Turkey that should not be overestimated: “Materialism and practical atheism hit the Turks hard; in reality Islam is not a religion of asceticism even if the Ramadan fast suggests the opposite. Abstinence from pork or alcohol is only there to create a sense of basic external belonging, but fewer and fewer young people are interested in the religion.”
“My dream is to expand the space for the mission,” concludes the Archbishop of Izmir. Crucial and first-hand testimony from a cleric in contact with reality, far from the synodal mirages, a situation on which many bishops, in Europe and elsewhere, would benefit to meditate.
While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has just been re-elected for a third five-year term, the Catholic Archbishop of Izmir – formerly Smyrna – is reviewing the situation of an ultra-minority Church in the land of Islam.