Pope, Greek Orthodox primate pledge to work toward full communion

Published: 2006-12-14

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After centuries of allowing themselves to grow apart, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox must seek forgiveness and learn to work together for the good of the world, said Pope Benedict XVI and Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and all Greece. The pope formally welcomed the primate of the Orthodox Church of Greece to the Vatican Dec. 14, solemnly signing with him a commitment to preaching the Gospel together and to working for full communion. "We want to live more intensely our mission of giving an apostolic witness, of transmitting the faith to those who are near and those who are far," said the joint declaration, written in Greek and in French on a large piece of parchment. In their speeches to each other and in their declaration, the pope and the archbishop acknowledged how far apart their communities had grown over the centuries and how difficult their relations were, even as late as the 1990s.

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