” “” “Today’s visit "marks a new step in the common walk of our Churches to address the problems of the world". With these words, the archbishop of Athens and all Greece, Christodoulos, spoke to Benedict XVI who received him in the Vatican for the highlight of his trip to Rome, that began yesterday night. Christodoulos greeted the Pope by recalling the contacts between the delegations of the Greek Church and the Holy See, especially that of 2002: "this memory and the hope of overcoming the obstacles that obstruct the walk of the unity in faith strengthen our will to live in full unity. As to this, we do hope that the International Mixed Commission, in charge of dialogue between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches, will succeed". In addition, Christodoulos pointed at the "de-Christianisation of Europe, the exclusion of the Church from public life, migration, the gap between the rich and the poor, the risk of a conflict between civilisations and religions, and the debasement of the human being as the challenges that must be tackled". "The Church he concluded knows that in today’s media-based world it must speak the language of man, without bowing its message to the communication technique. The Church is called to oppose to the State and to the superpowers when their decisions impair the living image of God on earth, but without giving in to the temptation of feeling itself a power of this world".” “
