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June 26, 2001
Greek Orthodox protest Pope's Visit from Louisville, KY THE RECORD, 5/3/01
By JOHN THAVIS
Catholic News Service
Orthodox protests continued over Pope John Paul II's imminent pilgrimage to Greece, with monks and other activists staging a prayer vigil and a march to the Greek Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Vatican dropped a top official, Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, from the papal entourage because he is an Eastern Catholic and had drawn Orthodox criticism.
Some 2,000 Orthodox Christians demonstrated against the papal visit April 30 in Athens, waving flags and carrying banners that denounced Pope John Paul as "the Antichrist pope."
The prayer vigil three days earlier was organized by monks of the Mount Athos monastery, who represent one of the most conservative wings of the Orthodox Church in Greece and have refused to go along with official Orthodox acceptance of the pope's visit.
Cardinal Daoud, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Eastern Churches, was expected to accompany the pope on his pilgrimage. But according to the Vatican missionary news agency Fides, he was dropped from the entourage after conservative Orthodox objected to his presence in Greece.
A Capuchin priest who teaches Orthodox theology in Rome, Father Yannis Spiteris, predicted that despite the publicity given the protests, the Greek people would give the pope a cordial welcome.
"The atmosphere is hostile, but the pope's visit cannot fail to leave a deep impression. It will help heal centuries-old antipope feelings in Greece," Father Spiteris said.
Father Spiteris said that as soon as average Greeks see that the pope comes in an attitude of humility and that he is a "priest who suffers, a bishop to be admired, a pilgrim, not a conqueror, then the argument will stop and the hatred will dissolve."
Bishop Teoclitos, spokesman of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in Greece, said the anti-pope demonstrators do not represent mainstream sentiments among the Orthodox Christian community.
"The pope will be welcome in Greece. The synod of the Orthodox Church "declared unanimously its willingness to accept this visit, which is a personal desire of Pope John Paul II," he told the Italian newspaper Avvenire.
. He said there would be no common prayer when the pope encounters the head of the Orthodox Church in Greece, Archbishop Christodoulos, because Orthodox Church law still forbids it on the basis of dogmatic differences.
Bishop Teoclitos said the pope and Archbishop Christodoulos would make a common declaration on Europe and the need to rediscover its Christian roots.