Pope Francis has expressed his sadness over turning Hagia Sophia basilica back into a Mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey.

He did so following his Angelus greetings, yesterday Sunday, July 12, 2020, after in these days, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced his decision to do so and signed a decree to put it into effect.

After recalling the Pontiff recalled that the International Day of the Sea falls on the second Sunday in July, Francis noted that the sea carries him “a little farther away in my thoughts: to Istanbul.”

“I think of Hagia Sophia, and I am very saddened,” he said.

Nearly 1,500 years ago Hagia Sophia was built as a Christian cathedral. After the Ottoman conquest of 1453, it was turned into a mosque. In 1934, the Unesco World Heritage Site became a museum in 1934 under Turkish Republic founding father Ataturk.

Earlier this week, however, a Turkish court annulled the site’s museum status, “saying its use as anything other than a mosque was ‘not possible legally,’ reported BBC.

According to the source, Muslim prayers will begin there as early as July 24th.

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