Posted by GS on May 03, 2001 at 03:55:58:
In Reply to: Re: The Pope's visit to Greece posted by b on May 02, 2001 at 23:06:27:
Objectively, as a young Greek I would really like to see the two churches to scrap their differences and see that what unites them is a lot more than what devides them.
However, i must admit that personally I believe that the pope as a presence is a farse. The pope always had ideas that included politics instead of religion and as a matter of fact the catholics were the ones that separated from the united church just because they realised that they didn't have any power and influence because the centre of the church was in Constantinople.
So I always believe (and I'm not saying that the Orthodox church is unmistakable) that the pope had his personal ambitions first and then religion in his mind. He is (the Pope not John-Paul II himself)responsible for the inquisition that killed people by the hundreds of thousands, he is responsible for the crusades and the first destruction of Constantinople (1204 if I'm not mistaken -as if they tried to spread the word of Christ to Byzantium!!!) and if I'm not mistaken it took them 40 years to condemn the nazi atrocities, in an era where the catholic church did nothing to help the innocent.
Even this visit to Greece is a product of personal ambition and I truly believe that the pope is trying to visit the whole of the world and especially Greece as well only to be declared as a Saint after his death(we will have to wait a few years for that, but remember this). And finally he as a presence is a farse since the poor man cannot even walk properly and they drag him around the corners of the world (he actually reminds me of the late Andreas Papandreou!).
However, I believe that in general his visit to Greece is a positive thing and I hope that the Greek people rise up to the circumstances and accept him as just another leader of another church and not as the anti-christ for Christ's sake!! Of course all the old fanatics will be there, but they do not represent the whole public's opinion, which in fact do not really care if the Pope visits or not, this cannot harm anybody's faith. And finally as i said above, I think it's time to face the truth and see that the differences of the two churches are minimal and it's time to realise that the catholic church is not the real enemy (which if any that would be our friends from the east).