Vatican City, Feb 22, 2006 / 22:00 pm
On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to meet with priests and seminarians from Greece’s Orthodox Christian Church. It is hoped that the visit, which parallels a similar trip taken by Catholic priests and seminarians to Athens last year, will foster greater knowledge and understanding between the two faiths.
The group, which arrives in Rome tomorrow and will stay until the 28th, hails from the Orthodox Theological College of "Apostoliki Diakonia."
The Vatican announced yesterday afternoon that the historic visit is being orchestrated in part by the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration and the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The group will be composed of 31 priests and seminarians from theology faculty and related disciplines at the University of Athens. It is being headed by Bishop Agathangelos, who is director general of the "Apostoliki Diakonia” as well as representative of His Beatitude Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and Greece.