Benedict XVI is to receive Metropolitan Christodoulos on 14 December. The Orthodox Church in Athens announced the forthcoming visit in recent days. It will be the Metropolitan’s first official visit to the Vatican. The statement put out by the Greek Orthodox Church explains that the invitation for the visit came from the Vatican at the end of October 2005. It is hoped it will “mark a further stage in the process of reconciliation and cooperation between the two Churches”. It would seem, therefore, that all the difficulties raised by the Holy Synod, which had opposed the journey, have now been overcome. According to protocol, Pope Benedict XVI ought first to meet the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, which he will do in Turkey at the end of this month. The process of rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church was marked by another important event, the visit of John Paul II to Athens, in May 2001. On that occasion the Pope had asked forgiveness from the Orthodox for the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204.
