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| Vatican, Dec. 14, 2006 (CWNews.com) - Greek Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens met with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, December 14, and the two signed a joint statement affirming their commitment to Christian unity. In their joint statement the Pope and Archbishop Christodoulos affirmed “our joint responsibility to overcome, in love and truth, the multiple difficulties and painful experiences of the past.” The quest for full Christian unity, they said, should “reinforce the credibility of the Christian message in a period of enormous social upheaval and of great spiritual searching by many of our contemporaries.” In his welcoming remarks to the Greek archbishop, Pope Benedict spoke of how Catholic and Orthodox believers share “the duty to defend the Christian roots of Europe, which have formed the continent down the centuries.” Ecumenical cooperation is a necessity, he said, in light of “growing secularization, relativism and nihilism, which open the way to forms of behavior and laws that damage the inalienable dignity of man and threaten such fundamental institutions as marriage.” Archbishop Christodoulos-- the first Greek Orthodox primate ever to make an official visit to the Holy See-- began his day at the Vatican with a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica, where he prayed at the tomb of Pope John Paul II. (The Greek archbishop had met with the late Pontiff when John Paul II traveled to Athens in 2001.) Then he was escorted to the apostolic palace for his meeting with Pope Benedict. The joint statement signed by the two prelates outlined several areas in which the Catholic and Orthodox churches can cooperate in the struggle against secularization. The statement pointed to “experiments on human beings which do not respect the dignity or integrity of the person at all stages of existence, from conception to natural death." The prelates called for greater protection of human rights, “founded on the dignity of man created in God's image." They urged efforts to ease poverty in the underdeveloped world, and called for “reasoned and respectful care of creation, in order to administer it correctly, while maintaining solidarity, especially with people suffering hunger, and leaving future generations an earth that can truly be inhabited by everyone." During his private talk with the Pontiff, Archbishop Christodoulos asked for the Holy See to return a fragment of the Parthenon which is now displayed in the Vatican Museums, a spokesman for the Greek Church disclosed. Pieces of the Parthenon, removed from the ruins during the 17th and 18th centuries, are now kept in several museums in Europe, with the most important piece held by the British Museum. In recent years the Greek government has sought the restoration of these fragments-- to date, unsuccessfully. Pope Benedict evidently did not immediately respond to the archbishop’s request. Archbishop Christodoulos continued his visit on Thursday afternoon with a trip to the basilica of St. Paul-outside-the-Walls, where he was presented with a few links from the chain that bound St. Paul in a Roman prison. On Friday the Greek prelate is due to pray at the tomb of St. Cyril, in the basilica of St. Clement; visit the catacombs and the basilica of St. Mary Major; and later to accept an honorary degree from the Pontifical Lateran university. During his trip to the Lateran university the Orthodox archbishop will also visit the basilica of St. John Lateran, thus completing a pilgrimage to the four great basilicas of Rome. On Saturday, Archbishop Christodoulos will meet again with Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the pontifical Council for Christian Unity, who hosted him for dinner after his arrival in Rome on Wednesday evening. He will then leave for his return trip to Athens. |
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Discussion: Pope, Greek Orthodox primate unite against secularism |
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