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Vatican City, 23rd
February 2006 (CNA)
- On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled
to meet with priests and seminarians from Greece’s
Orthodox Christian Church. It is hoped that the
visit, which parallels a similar trip taken by
Catholic priests and seminarians to Athens last
year, will foster greater knowledge and
understanding between the two faiths.
The group, which arrives in Rome tomorrow
and will stay until the 28th, hails from the
Orthodox Theological College of "Apostoliki
Diakonia."
The Vatican announced yesterday afternoon
that the historic visit is being orchestrated in
part by the Catholic Committee for Cultural
Collaboration and the Holy See’s Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The group will be composed of 31 priests
and seminarians from theology faculty and related
disciplines at the University of Athens. It is
being headed by Bishop Agathangelos, who is
director general of the "Apostoliki Diakonia” as
well as representative of His Beatitude
Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and
Greece.
The group is scheduled for a Monday
audience with the Holy Father, as well as a visit
the Vatican’s Apostolic Library, home to the
famous Greek manuscript, the "Menologue of Basil
II.”
Likewise, they will visit the Monastery of
St. Mary at Grottaferrata outside Rome, and the
city’s four major basilicas.
The group is also slated to meet priests
and seminarians from the diocese of Rome, who
spent five weeks last year studying in Athens and
striving for a better understanding of the
Orthodox faith. The trip was made at the behest of
the "Apostoliki Diakonia."
The Vatican noted that both the Orthodox
and Catholic groups are due to attend a liturgical
ceremony which will be held in the church of St.
Theodore Megalomartyr, home of the Greek-Orthodox
community in Rome. |
