Pope Benedict XVI has ended his visit to Turkey by concelebrating Mass with the Orthodox Patriarch, Bartholomew, at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul.
The Pontiff said the Church was not seeking to impose anything on anyone, but was asking to be allowed to carry out its work.
He and the Patriarch have pledged to work more closely together. The two churches split almost 1,000 years ago.
A community of at least 6,000 Iraqi war refugees was represented by a choir of Chaldean Catholics which performed for the Pope at the Mass in Istanbul.
The UN says almost half of Iraq's asylum-seekers are Chaldean, although they comprise only 3% of that country's population
The response of the European Union to the continuing exodus of Chaldeans from Iraq has been sharply criticised by their pastor in Istanbul, Fr Francois Yakan.
He knows 83 widows who urgently need permanent homes for themselves and their families. But unlike Canada and Australia, EU member countries have so far failed to offer them one.
It is a failure Fr Yakan has asked the Pope to highlight.
