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Pope appeals for West Asia peace

Selcuk (Turkey): Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday conducted a Mass at one of the holiest Christian places in Turkey.

The pontiff conducted the open-air Mass next to the ruins of a house where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years, and security forces had sealed off the area.

A paramilitary helicopter hovered low over the crowd as the Pope arrived in a fleet of vehicles, and registered guests went through three separate metal detectors before reaching the sacred site.

St John the Apostle is believed to have brought the Virgin Mary to the house to care for her after Jesus' death.

The Pope made a fresh appeal for peace in West Asia.

``Love and peace be with you,'' he said in Turkish at the start of the ceremony at the hill-top shrine outside the ancient city of Ephesus and about 100 km south of the Aegean port of Izmir. ``Peace for all of humanity!'' he urged. ``We all need this universal peace.''

The pontiff was scheduled to fly to Istanbul later to meet Patriarch Bartholomew I, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, in a display of rapprochement between the two branches of Christianity. — Agencies

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