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 Travels of Pope John Paul II, 1979 Scott C72 (1980) Last year, our Daily Email for September 18 posed the question: what explains the change in format, and late release, of the 1980 Vatican City airmail stamp Scott C72, issued as part of the Papal Travels of 1979 set? The stamp, shown above, differs in appearance from the other six stamps in the set, was released at a later date, and underwent a design change. As we often find when we research interesting aspects of Vatican philately, there are deeper stories to be told. The following insights were received from VPS member Patrick Moore, who corresponds often with the VPS Website Team from his home in Bonn, Germany: "I remember that the subject was considered dicey at the time. In all the other visits depicted on the first six values, the Pope was in contact with large Catholic populations, so the image of the outstretched arms was appropriate. In Turkey, however, he was visiting a mainly Muslim country but not to mix with its Muslim population but to meet the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church, which is regarded by many Turks as an alien presence on their soil. The stamp squares the circle nicely by showing the Turkish coat of arms and the Pope embracing the Patriarch -- and nothing more."Patrick's point is well taken. One of the six other stamps from the set is shown here (commemorating the pope’s trip to Poland), with the design similar to the stamps issued to mark his trips to Ireland, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the United States and the United Nations:  Travels of Pope John Paul II, 1979, Poland Scott C72 (1980) In doing a little research on the trip to Turkey, media reports corroborate Patrick’s assertions. There was little interest, but a great deal of trepidation surrounding the visit to Turkey, including an eerie look into the future. This was the second visit by a pope to the predominantly Muslim country (after Pope Paul VI’s visit in 1967). The following excerpt is taken from an article appearing in the online version of Anadolu Agency (AA), a Turkish media source, entitled John Paul II's visit sparked little interest: "John Paul II’s arrival in Turkey…aroused little fanfare. ‘No jubilant flag-waving crowds were waiting for him’, the New York Times reported. ‘The windswept tarmac was empty except for an honor guard of Turkish soldiers.’…The aim of his visit, he insisted, was ‘to seek further progress toward reuniting the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches’."The AA article cites ‘tensions’ between the East and West, as well as between Muslims and Catholics. This visit occurred in late November of 1979, only weeks after the hostage-taking of 53 Americans in Iran on November 4. The general Turkish population largely ignored the visit. Later in the trip, the pope celebrated Mass at Ephesus, which illustrated the disinterest and tension surrounding the trip. As described in a Washington Post report: "The pope flew to Izmir…[and then went] to Ephesus, the site of the second ecumenical council which proclaimed in 431 the dogma of the divine motherhood of Mary…The pope visited the shrine of the Holy Virgin…[where he was greeted by about] 700 persons, most of them American servicemen from the Sixth Tactical Air Forces base near Izmir…The crowd also included about 100 Polish employes of a contracting firm building a power plant south of [Ephesus]…An incident in the middle of mass caused brief alarm…[when] three gunshots in rapid succession rang out...[Reportedly] a guard stumbled and accidentally discharged his automatic weapon."The Post article also reported that Turkish authorities were ‘edgy’ during the pope’s visit due to assassination threats issued by rightist terrorists and Armenian nationalists. One such threat reportedly came from Mehmet Ali Agca, the self-confessed killer of a Turkish journalist. It was Agca who, in fact, would attempt to assassinate the pope in Saint Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. Pope John Paul II’s trip to Turkey was the second of four papal trips to Turkey to date. In addition to Pope Paul VI’s trip in 1967, Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2006 and Pope Francis in 2014. REFERENCES: |
