Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Pope Meets With Head of Greece Church

Newsday.com
By Associated Press

December 14, 2006, 5:54 AM EST

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI met on Thursday with Archbishop Christodoulos, head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, for talks on relations between the two churches.

Christodoulos arrived late Wednesday for a four-day visit. It is his first visit to the Vatican since he attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in April 2005.

Relations between Orthodox and Catholic churches have improved significantly in recent years, although they remain divided by long-standing questions of doctrine.

Calls for greater dialogue were strengthened when Benedict visited Turkey from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1 and met with Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians.

In remarks Wednesday before his departure, Christodoulos referred to "the scandal of the division of Christians" and spoke of a continuing, 25-year "dialogue that has as its aim to break the ice between the churches."

Christodoulos set his visit in a broader perspective, expressing "the need for collaboration of religions, and not only between the Christian churches." World peace "is threatened by the fanaticism of certain persons, on which they put the label of religion," he said.

Archbishop Christodoulos' visit reciprocates John Paul's trip to Athens in 2001.

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 5:15 PM