Vatican City, Feb 26, 2006 / 22:00 pm
At noon today, Pope Benedict XVI met with a group of priests and seminarians visiting as representatives of the Orthodox Church of Greece. He told them that as the culture of Europe and the world become increasingly hostile to the Christian faith, Catholics and Orthodox must work together to spread the Gospel message.
The papal visitors came from the Theological College of "Apostoliki Diakonia", as well as the University of Athens.
Following a brief personal meeting, the Pope consigned a written message to the group, in which, he laments that "For we Christians of both East and West, at the beginning of the second millennium the forces of evil acted in the divisions that still persist between us today.”
Nonetheless, he wrote, “over the last 40 years many consoling and hopeful signs have caused us to see a new dawn, that of the day on which we will fully understand that being rooted and founded in Christ's charity means truly finding a way to overcome our divisions through personal and community conversion, listening to others and common prayer for our unity."