Two French bishops went to Istanbul, seat of the ecumenical Patriarchate, to participate in the “sorrowful” anniversary, on Tuesday 13 April, of the taking of Constantinople by the Crusaders 800 years ago. It was in 1204 that thousands of French and Venetian troops, participating in the fourth Crusade to take possession of Constantinople, sacked the city and massacred its population. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, and Msgr. Gerard Daucourt, bishop of Nanterre, joined with Patriarch Bartholomew I in commemorating “these tragic events that left a deep wound in the relations between Christians of East and West”, said Cardinal Barbarin in a communiqué. Bartholomew I he added “had the kindness to welcome” the desire of the French episcopate to participate in the commemorations and to “consider us now as his brothers”.
