In 1571, the troops of the Papal States sent by Pius V, together with the Venetians and the Spaniards, under the command of John of Austria, defeated the Grand Turk in the Gulf of Lepanto under inferior conditions. Now, an Argentine pope is facing a highly worrying phenomenon in the 21st century: Islamic fundamentalism. He began his visit with the denunciation of terrorism in Iraq and Syria: "The humanitarian status is distressing", Francis cried out before the Diyanet, the highest religious authority of the Turkish State. He condemned "violence that seeks a religious justification". The Turkish leader, who welcomed him in his fl avid presidential palace, responded by rejecting the "growing Islamophobia" that has arisen in the West. Islamic fundamentalism 

-he asserted, is paradoxically a Western product. And this provokes an equally Western and paradoxical reaction of rejection of Islam. A proposal worthy of consideration.

Francis, who had denounced before the European Parliament the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, launched a clear message of rejection of the "simple military response" in Syria and Iraq, although he recalled that it is "lawful to stop the unjust aggressor". In his message to the Turkish authorities, he defended "interreligious and intercultural dialogue" in order to "put aside all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism, which gravely humiliate the dignity of all men and women and instrumentalize religion". He also called for "the solidarity of believers" to oppose "fanaticism and fundamentalism, irrational phobias that encourage misunderstanding". We are facing a meeting between cultures and religions in conditions very different from those of the historic battle between Moors and Christians. Thus the Pope wields the difficult sword of peace to stop all irreverent and irrational violence.