The Pope, now under fire in the Muslim world for recent
remarks about Islam, will visit a larger-than-life bronze
statue of Pope Benedict during his delicate trip to Turkey in late November.

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The towering statue stands just off a busy main street in
central Istanbul, with a plaque hailing him as "the benefactor of all people, regardless of nationality or religion".

Is this a gesture of reconciliation from a government with Islamist roots that has just called the German-born pontiff's words "ugly and unfortunate"? Or a serious mistake in timing?

The answer is neither. The statue was erected in 1921 to Pope Benedict XV, the last head of the Roman Catholic Church to use that name until German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in April 2005 and became Benedict XVI.

Ratzinger said that the last Benedict's repeated efforts to end the First World War were one reason he took the name.

Turkey honoured the Italian-born Benedict for opening up Catholic health facilities to all victims of the war, regardless of which side they fought on. The then Ottoman Empire was allied with another empire that lost that war, Germany.

"He didn't succeed in ending the war, so he did what he could to ease the suffering of its victims," said Monsignor Georges Marovitch, spokesman for the bishops serving the tiny minority of Roman and Eastern Catholics in this Muslim country.

Heeding his call, the Spanish embassy set up a small hospital and nuns installed recovery rooms in their convents for wounded Ottoman soldiers and ailing Austrian and Italian prisoners of war forced to work in Anatolian mines and on railways.

When Church officials began collecting for the statue, Sultan Mehmet VI joined Muslims, Jews, Armenians and other groups contributing to the fund, said Rinaldo Marmara, historian for the Vatican representation in Istanbul.

The statue stands on a large stone pedestal in the small forecourt of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, built in 1846.

In keeping with their minority status here, the Catholics had to hide the cathedral behind an office building to avoid offending the city's Muslim majority. They erected the statue in the forecourt for the same reason.

The Italian-made memorial shows a worried looking Benedict in his papal robes and triple tiara, with his right hand raised as if to say "stop!" to the trench fighting he abhorred.

No such gesture of gratitude in expected in the case of today's Benedict, who spoke out against Turkish membership in the European Union before he was elected Pope.

This month, he gave a speech interpreted as an attack on Islam, prompting Muslim leaders to call for the visit to be called off or for Benedict to issue a full apology.

But it's not all hard feelings here.

The city of Istanbul has paid for cleaning and renovating the statue in preparation for the Pope's visit.

"We're the City Hall for all the people, not just for one group," said Nadya Tasel, the city official in charge of relations with minority communities, said as she visited the site to review the work.

Asked how much the renovation cost, she smiled and said: "This is a gift from the city. It's not right to reveal the price of a gift."