” “A letter to the members of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece to express condolences and "spiritual sympathy" with the "Greek people and especially with the Orthodox Church of Greece" for the death of archbishop Christodoulos. It was sent by card. Peter Erdö, president of Ccee, on behalf of all the president of the European Bishops Conferences. In today’s letter, the cardinal recalls John Paul II and S.B. Christodoulos signing the Joint Declaration on May 4th 2001, "with which they pledged themselves to mutual cooperation and to a joint testimony for the protection of the Christian identity in the European Continent". That meeting in Athens marked the beginning of "a new era in the relations between the Roman Church and the Orthodox Church of Greece", which eventually led to the archbishop’s attending Pope John Paul II’s funeral in Rome and going on an official visit to Pope Benedict XVI: "a visit that couldn’t have happened without the fraternal agreement of the Holy Synod of the venerable Orthodox Church of Greece and archbishop Christodoulos’s desire for dialogue. It was a memorable step for ecumenism in Europe and for the history of the relations between our two Churches". ” “
