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Doctors on Thursday diagnosed Archbishop Christodoulos of Greece with cancer
Greece's Archbishop Christodoulos is seen in this file photo on Sept. 17, 1999. Doctors have diagnosed Christodoulos with cancer on Thursday, June 21, 2007.
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Doctors on Thursday diagnosed Archbishop Christodoulos of Greece with cancer
Posted on Thu Jun 21 2007
ATHENS, Greece (AP): Doctors on Thursday diagnosed the leader of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church with cancer.
Archbishop Christodoulos, who has helped thaw centuries of tension with the Vatican but is often accused by some politicians of meddling in domestic politics, has cancer in the large intestine and the liver, doctors at the state-run Aretaion hospital said.
He has been hospitalized since June 9, and has already undergone intestinal surgery.
The hospital's head surgeon, Dionysis Vorros, said the two cancers were not directly related and had not spread from one site to the other.
"The position and the development of the (cancer) in the liver suggests that it can be dealt with," Vorros said. The hospital's head doctor on Wednesday described his condition as "treatable," adding that the archbishop had requested that details of his illness be fully disclosed to the public.
The 68-year-old Orthodox leader remains a controversial figure in Greece, but his illness caused an outpouring of sympathy in a country where 97 percent of the population is baptized Orthodox Christian.
Politicians who have publicly criticized him for meddling in the affairs of state visited him in hospital.
Elected Church leader in 1998, Christodoulos received the late Pope John Paul II in 2001 in the first visit by a pontiff to the Orthodox country in nearly 1,300 years. Christodoulos followed up last year with a historic visit to the Vatican, where he met Pope Benedict XVI.
Despite his public appeal, Christodoulos also made enemies. In frequent televised sermons, he has criticized gays, aspirations by neighboring Turkey to join the European Union, and a government initiative to ease the nationalist tone of history books in state elementary school.
In 2001, he led a failed campaign to prevent the state from removing the religion entry on compulsory state identity cards. The church maintained it had gathered some 3 million signatures — more than a quarter of Greece's population — in an attempt to stop the government from changing the identity cards.
Since being hospitalized, Christodoulos has received daily visits from Greece's political leadership and public figures, including the country's former King Constantine II and the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.
On Wednesday, Christodoulos expressed gratitude for the support.
"At this moment all the (support) I have received is a great comfort for me. It gives me strength," he said in a written statement.
Greek President Karolos Papoulias said after visiting the archbishop that he was "too overcome with emotion" to make any comment.
Doctors said Christodoulos would remain in intensive care for at least three more days and likely be allowed to return home next week.
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Anamenome ke prosefhometha gia tin exelixi tis metamoshefseos .O theos ke o laos ine maji sas.Sas agapame poly.Prosefhometha. Dionisios ke Athena Pletsas
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