Published by Ekathimerini.com, October 29, 2004  Vartholomaios to visit Vatican for holy relics By James C. Helicke - The Associated Press

ISTANBUL - The spiritual leader of the world’s 200 million Orthodox Christians will travel to the Vatican next month to retrieve the relics of two saints seized by crusaders 800 years ago, in a step Orthodox officials say is an historic move toward reconciliation with the Catholic Church.

The decision for Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios to travel to the Vatican was made by his Holy Synod, or governing council, during a meeting which took place on Wednesday, a Patriarchate official said on customary condition of anonymity.

Vartholomaios will travel to Rome on Nov. 26 and Pope John Paul II will hand over the relics of saints John Chrysostomos and Gregory the Theologian at a ceremony the following day in St Peter’s Basilica, officials at the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate said.

Vatican officials are expected to accompany the relics during their return to Istanbul.

The relics disappeared from Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, when the city was sacked by crusaders in 1204.

They were kept in St Peter’s Basilica, and Vatican officials recently announced they would be returned to the Orthodox Church.

“This is a high point of friendship between the Catholic and Orthodox churches,” the Patriarchate official said. “This is truly historic.”

Vartholomaios and John Paul have both emphasized reconciliation between the two churches, split since the Great Schism divided Christianity into Eastern and Western branches in 1054. During a visit to Greece in 2001, John Paul apologized for Roman Catholic involvement in the sacking of Constantinople — an apology that the Orthodox Church had long sought. Vartholomaios accepted the pope’s apology earlier this year.

Vartholomaios asked for the return of the relics when he met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in June. He also invited the pope to visit the seat of the Orthodox Church in Istanbul.

Because of the 84-year-old pontiff’s frail condition, the Vatican has reduced his foreign travel and the pope will not make the trip to Istanbul.

Christianity split into Western and Eastern branches over the growing power of the papacy, an issue that remains a principal source of division.