[ALBSA-Info] Pope's visit

[Agron Alibali]

Pope Calls for Harmony with Angry Orthodox
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May 04, 2001 07:02 AM ET 
  
 Reuters PhotoBy Jeremy Gaunt 
ATHENS (Reuters) - Pope John Paul called on Friday for reconciliation between Catholics and Orthodox Christians as Greece's religious leader prepared to deliver a verbal assault against 1,000 years of "unbrotherly" division. 
On the controversial first leg of a six-day pilgrimage to Greece, Syria and Malta, the Pope said it was a duty for Christians to smooth relations that have dogged both Churches since 1054. 
"Many walls have been broken down in recent times but others remain," he said in an address to Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos. "There is much to be done to bring harmony to the Christians of the East and West so that the Church can breathe with both her lungs." 
The pontiff earlier arrived in Athens to a low-profile reception in which he was greeted with a traditional olive branch and children in traditional Greek clothes. 
Vatican officials said he had kissed Greek soil -- his traditional blessing on arrival in a new country -- held up in a basket, although the ceremony was blocked from many people's view by officials greeting him. 
The Pope's visit has aroused fierce opposition from the dominant Greek Orthodox Church, while leaving many ordinary people indifferent. 
A small demonstration by black-robed priests began at a downtown Athens square where "Pope Go Home" placards were raised. A bigger protest was planned for later in the day. 
"He came to subjugate Greece. He wants to become the world dictator of the church," said Father Sidiros, one of the protesters. 
Greek authorities had put on unprecedented security for the one-day visit -- the first by a Pope since the Great Schism of 1054 divided Christianity into Eastern and Western branches . 
Athens streets were generally deserted, although police were to be seen everywhere, a far cry from the throngs that usually greet the pontiff. 
For the Pope, who turns 81 this month, the trip is the realization of a dream -- a pilgrimage along the path taken by St. Paul, the apostle who converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus. 
"WOUNDS" FROM TIME OF CRUSADES 
But conservative Orthodox believers have demonstrated for weeks against the arrival of the man they call the "arch-heretic" and whom they blame for the schism and a variety of other ills, including the Holy Inquisition. 
In an advance copy of a speech to be delivered to the Pope later on Friday, Greece's Archbishop Christodoulos said "open wounds" remained from the time of the Crusades, a series of papally sanctioned wars (1096-1291) to recapture Palestine from the Muslims. 
Closer to the present day, he attacked the pontiff for his alleged silence about the plight of the divided island of Cyprus. 
The Pope was to meet Greek officials, visit a Catholic church and pray opposite the Acropolis on the Arios Pagos hill, where Paul made his famous sermon to the "unknown god." 
He will hold a relatively small Mass for a few thousand faithful in a basketball court on Saturday morning. 
MIDDLE EAST PEACE 
>From Greece, the Pope flies on to Syria on Saturday where he is to issue an appeal for peace in the Middle East. His arrival in Damascus will mean he has traveled to Israel and all border nations that have been at war with it. 
His call for peace will be delivered from the Golan Heights city of Quneitra, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and returned under a U.S.-negotiated agreement in 1974. 
Israeli troops destroyed Quneitra, but still occupy the western Golan, as underlined by the Jewish state's military radar posts perched on the dominating peak. 
Syria has left Quneitra as it was in 1974 and made the city a museum to illustrate what it calls Zionist destruction. 
In Damascus, the Pope is to make a stop in the splendid Umayyad Mosque, whose history sums up the complexity of Syria's religious past. 
The site began as a pagan temple, was converted to a church after Christianity became the Roman Empire's religion in the 4th century and a mosque after the Arabs conquered Damascus in 639. 
After four days in Syria, the Pope ends his trip in predominantly Catholic Malta, presiding at a beatification ceremony for two Maltese priests and a nun. (additional reporting by Philip Pullella in Athens) 



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